


Tales from Pete's World - The Beginning

by SciFiFanForever



Series: Tales from Pete's World [1]
Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-27
Updated: 2014-07-27
Packaged: 2018-02-10 16:06:38
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 21
Words: 71,119
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2031351
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SciFiFanForever/pseuds/SciFiFanForever
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What happened to Pete Tyler after the Age of Steel? What was his part in the build-up to Doomsday? Why did Jackie leave her husband and son to travel with Mickey to Journey’s End?<br/>Thanks to:<br/>http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/DWU, for canon information.<br/>http://www.chakoteya.net/doctorwho/nuepisodes.htm, for transcripts.<br/>Marc Platt (Lungbarrow)<br/>The BBC for creating these wonderful characters.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Age of Steel ends

**Author's Note:**

> This story looks at season two from Pete Tyler's view point.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Watching Rise of the Cybermen, Age of Steel, Army of Ghosts, Doomsday, Turn Left, The Stolen Earth and Journey's End, I couldn't help but notice that there is a lot of information missing from the alternate universe. This is my attempt to explain what might have been going on over there.

** **

** Chapter One **

 

Pete Tyler wandered aimlessly along the Albert Embankment, the day’s events playing in his mind on an endless loop.

 

He was CEO of Vitex, a company that produced very popular health drinks and had made him rich. When the company was bought by Cybus Industries, it made him very rich.

 

And now it all meant nothing. His wife Jackie, had become more interested in his wealth than in him. So much so, that they had secretly divorced so that she could still enjoy the status of being the wife of one of the richest men in the country.

 

He had been on the board of a company that had murdered thousands of people in the name of progress, one of which was his ex-wife. He knew the owner of Cybus Industries, John Lumic, was up to something but never dreamed it would involve putting people’s brains into robots.

 

And then there were those mysterious strangers who had gate crashed Jackie’s birthday party, disguised as the catering staff. They claimed to have come from another universe, how crazy was that?

 

The man who called himself the Doctor, he knew what to do; he had some futuristic tech to help him, and some extraordinary friends. The young guy, Mickey they called him, he had a twin brother called Ricky but they acted as though they didn’t know one another.

 

Mickey, along with one of the Preachers had managed to destroy the transmitter that controlled the ear pods, saving people from walking into a living hell.

 

He came to a bench that looked out over the river and flopped down with exhaustion, both physical and mental.

 

Then there was that girl! Rose. She acted as though she knew him, she seemed so familiar, as though he had met her before but he couldn’t remember where or when.

 

They had worked as a team with the Doctor in control. They had to be from some special operations outfit such as Torchwood or UNIT. The Doctor spoke in code to Mickey and got him to send the emotional inhibitor code to Rose’s phone so that he could disable the Cybermen.

 

And they coordinated their escape with Mickey flying a Zepplin to pick them up off the roof. He must have had special training for that surely.

 

And what was with that quirky blue box? What was all that about? Where did that fit into all of this.

 

He felt a pang of guilt and regret when he thought about their goodbye. Rose had called him ‘Dad’, it was just too much emotional turmoil to deal with, he had to walk away. He must have reminded her of her Dad, that was it. Wasn’t it? It had to be that.

 

And so, here he was, on a bench on the embankment, not knowing what was going to happen next or what he should do next. He leaned forwards and put his head in his hands. His shoulders started to shake as he thought of Jackie being cut up and then her body incinerated without any thought or ceremony. He saw the hurt look on Rose’s face when he had said ‘don’t, just, just don’t’.

 

He started to weep the tears that he had been holding back while he helped to save London, the tears that now wouldn’t stop.

 

+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

 

“So, Mr. Tyler, you told the desk sergeant at the station that you have information pertinent to this meeting?” It was Harriet Jones, Vice President of Great Britain who had spoken, and he knew who she was. She was now President by succession, the former President having been electrocuted in front of him at Jackie’s party when he refused to be ‘upgraded’.

 

He was seated at a long table in an expensively decorated, wood panelled room in the Palace of Westminster. There were members of the cabinet sat at the table, along with leaders of the armed forces and intelligence agencies.  

 

He recognised the Major-General from the Unified Intelligence Taskforce and the director of the Torchwood Institute who were also present.

 

“Er, yes,” he answered simply. He was still exhausted from the horrors of the previous night.

 

He had been found on the bench by two soldiers who were on patrol. Their initial orders had been to stop looting and enforce the emergency curfew. It soon turned out though that they were rescuing the shocked and dazed inhabitants of London and directing them to aid shelters in churches, mosques and synagogues that had been opened by volunteers.  

 

They had asked him for identification and then radioed their HQ for advice. Within minutes, a police patrol car had arrived and he was taken away for questioning. He wasn’t really surprised, he imagined all employees of Cybus industries would be arrested and brought in for questioning.

 

He sat in the interview room and gave his account of the evenings events. He told them of the mysterious strangers, who he assumed had been either Torchwood or UNIT operatives. He told them of the Preachers, a group of civilians who had been working with Torchwood to try and prevent the carnage that had occurred.

 

He was brought back to the present by the Presidents voice.

 

“Peter, I’ve known you for a while now and I think I am a good judge of character. However, if this is an attempt to avoid prosecution and justice then I will have no option but to return you to the police cells,” Harriet said with as much compassion as she was allowed. She had heard that his wife had been killed by Lumic’s madness, she could see the haunted look in his eyes.

 

“Oh, yes, of course. Sorry Harrie.... er, Madam President. John Lumic was a genius who was dying. At first I thought he was developing medical technology to aid people who were suffering from terminal illness. When I saw his proposal to the Ethical Committee, I started to suspect things weren’t quite what they seemed. For a while now I have been feeding information about Lumic’s global operation under the codename of ‘Gemini’,” he was quickly interrupted.

 

“And why should we believe you Mr. Tyler? Anyone in your current situation would claim to be ‘Gemini’, wouldn’t they?” It was the commander of UNIT who had spoken.

 

“Encrypted wavelength six five seven using binary nine, codeword ‘Rose’, that’s Jack.... was my wife’s dog. I presume you have transcripts of the transmissions?”

 

The Major-General sorted through a few papers in front of him and took one out. “Yes, here we are.”

 

Pete proceeded to tell him as much information about Lumic’s operations as he could remember sending. The Major-General nodded as each point was verified by the transcript in front of him.

 

“That’s a pretty good match for what we’ve got here Madam President,” he announced. Harriet stood and walked around the table to stand next to Pete, placing a hand on his shoulder.

 

“I’m sorry about that Peter, but we had to be sure you weren’t a part of Lumic’s madness.... And I’m sorry for your loss,” she told him.

 

Pete looked up at her, his eyes moist with tears. “Thank you.”

 

The President turned to face the rest of the group, focussing on the Torchwood director. “So, who were these operatives of yours? They deserve to be decorated for their actions,” she said.

 

Yvonne Hartman, the Torchwood director shrugged her shoulders and looked puzzled. “They weren’t ours.”

 

“Well, UNIT then, don’t tell me you know nothing about them,” Harriet said, starting to get frustrated.

 

“I’m sorry Madam President, but these people are nothing to do with UNIT, although I wouldn’t mind employing them if they’re available.”

 

“And Peter, you’re certain they weren’t with the Preachers?” Harriet asked turning back to him.

 

Pete shook his head. “No. I got the impression that they had never met before yesterday evening.”

 

The President went back to her chair and sat down. “Very well, Yvonne, I want you to find out everything you can about our mysterious saviours. Peter, I’d like you to consider working with Yvonne on this as you had the most contact with them.”

 

Pete looked between Harriet and Yvonne with a look of disbelief. In the space of a few minutes he’d gone from being a prime suspect in a global conspiracy to an advisor for Torchwood.

 

“Er, yes, yes of course. Thank you Madam President.”

 

+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

 

Mickey had gone back to his Gran’s house at Waterton Street to make sure she was alright after all of the evening’s chaos. He also needed to go through Ricky’s stuff to find a passport, money and supplies for a journey to the continent. He and Jake were going to use the emotional inhibitor code on Rose’s phone to shut down the Cybermen factories in France, and then maybe other countries as well.

 

He rattled the letterbox and called out. “Gran? You in there? Gran? It’s Mic.... Rickey. It’s me Rickey.” There was no answer and the lights were off, which wasn’t unusual as Rita Anne was blind and didn’t have much use for electric lights.

 

Mickey rattled the letterbox again, getting anxious now, when an army bus came around the corner and pulled up across the road. The side door opened and a soldier jumped down and started helping civilians down the steps. When a little old lady with a white stick stepped off the bus, Mickey and Jake ran across the road.

 

“GRAN! Where have you been? What’s goin’ on?” He looked at the soldier accusingly.

 

“Ricky? Is that you?” She moved towards the sound of his voice using her white stick. Mickey enveloped her in a gentle hug.

 

“They were found wandering around the streets after the ear pods went offline,” the soldier explained. “We’re collecting people from the aid shelters and returning them home.”

 

Mickey thanked the soldiers and took his Gran across the road to her front door. Jake took the key and opened the door for them. Rita Anne was guided to her favourite chair and made comfortable. Mickey went through to the kitchen and put the kettle on to make a pot of tea.

 

“Gran? What were you doin’ wanderin’ about like that?” Mickey asked her, as he held her hand.

 

“I don’t remember. I was listenin’ to the ear pod broadcast news, and then I was outside with people screamin’ and shoutin’. I must be goin’ senile or somethin’.” Of course! She had been wearing ear pods when he saw her earlier.

 

“No Gran, it’s alright. It was the ear pods, they were controllin’ people,” he told her. “But we’ve stopped ‘em now, haven’t we Jake?”

 

“Er, yeah, for now but we’ve still got work to do out there,” Jake replied.

 

“Jake? Who’s Jake? Is he one of those new friends you’ve been galavantin’ around with? I told you I didn’t trust them,” she started getting agitated.

 

“Gran, it’s alright. Without these people, the whole of London would have wandered off into the factories and disappeared. Mrs Moore was killed breakin’ into the factory to save people.”

 

Jake cleared his throat. Tears were stinging his eyes. He had just lost two friends today, and grief was just catching up with him.

 

“Angela Price,” he whispered. “Her name was Angela Price. An extraordinary woman who had an ordinary life, until she stumbled across Lumic’s evil plan.”

 

Mickey suddenly became guilt ridden. He hadn’t considered the fact that Jake had lost two close friends. “Oh Jake, I’m sorry man. I wasn’t thinkin’. I’m really sorry.” He pulled him into a hug and patted his back.

 

“It’s okay,” Jake said. “Let’s make sure their deaths weren’t in vain eh? Let’s make sure people know and remember what they did.”

 

“That is a fine tribute son,” Rita Anne told him. “When I go to church, I will tell everyone and we will pray for them. Now let’s have a cup of tea. Everyone will feel better after a nice cup of tea.”

 

After a nice cup of tea, Jake helped Mickey fix the carpet on the stairs. His real Gran had been killed by tripping on the carpet and falling down the stairs. He wasn’t going to let it happen to his adopted Gran.

 

When that job was done, they went into Ricky’s room and started going through his stuff. They felt a bit guilty going through a dead man’s belongings, and Mickey was freaked out by how similar Ricky’s stuff was to his.

 

“It’s like those stories you hear about twins separated at birth, y’know livin’ the same life an’ all that,” he told Jake.

 

Jake rubbed his hand over his face. “This doesn’t feel right, it’s like we’re disrespecting his memory.”

 

“Hey mate, listen, He was committed to the cause, right?” Jake nodded.

 

“And if he could’ve given you anythin’ to help the cause he would’ve done, wouldn’t he?”

 

“Yeah, I suppose he would. How’d you know?” Jake asked him.

 

“We were both brought up right by that wonderful old lady downstairs.”

 

+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

 

Pete Tyler was sitting in an operations room in Torchwood Tower with Yvonne Hartman and a group of specialists. They were going over security camera footage from his mansion and isolating the faces of the strangers.

 

“So this man here is the one called the Doctor?” She pointed to the Doctor’s image on the first monitor.

 

“Yes, that’s him. He was in charge of the group,” he told her.

 

“Doctor who?”

 

“I don’t know. It seemed to be his name rather than his title. Rose referred to him as ‘the Doctor’,” Pete informed her.

 

“Rose? That was this woman here?” Rose’s face was freeze framed on the second monitor.

 

“She seemed to be second in command, readily volunteering for the dangerous task of entering the Cyber factory.” He had a sad, wistful look in his eyes.

 

“And this man is Mickey?” she asked, pointing to the third monitor.

 

“Yeah, he was the technical support. He disabled the ear pod transmitter and sent the emotion inhibitor code to the Doctor.”

 

“And you say this man, Jake and this woman; Mrs. Moore weren’t part of the Doctor’s team?” Yvonne asked.

 

“No, they called themselves the Preachers and joined forces with the Doctor’s team,” he replied.

 

“Okay team let’s run these images through the facial recognition software and see if we can track them down. Meanwhile Pete, have a look at this surveillance footage from Lambeth Pier and tell me what you think.”

 

On a flat screen TV mounted on the wall, Pete could see night vision, still images flicking at 10 second intervals. There was the group of them standing outside of the wooden box. Then Pete was walking away while Mickey and Jake talked to the Doctor and Rose. Mickey and Jake stood back and looked at the box, and then.... No! That wasn’t possible.

 

“What the hell!” Pete exclaimed. “Where did it go? Has somebody tampered with the recording?”

 

“No, we’ve checked it, and sent out a team to scan the area. It was ‘hot’, residual traces of some kind of temporal distortion.” Yvonne flicked between the two images. “Now you see it, now you don’t.”

 

“Director Hartman, we’ve got the results on the facial recognition scan.” A white coated man pulled up the results on his computer.

 

“Right, what have we got then,” she asked as they huddled around the screen.

 

“That’s odd!” the operator said. “No, this can’t be right.”

 

“Why? What have you come up with,” Pete asked. He could see the computer running a graphical analysis of the images, digitizing them and producing wire-frame 3D virtual heads.

 

“The first subject, the Doctor, is a Scottish actor who has had supporting roles in film and TV, also has performed some Shakespeare on stage.” The two images were side by side on the first screen, the Doctor on one side and his alternate universe counterpart on the other.

 

“Subject number two, the female, is a singer who had some success early in her career and then married a radio DJ.”

 

“Send out someone to interview them, I want some answers,” Yvonne ordered.

 

“Ah, number three is local. Lives with his Grandmother at number 1, Warterton Street, SE 15. Not Mickey though, names Ricky Smith. Minor juvenile crime. Outstanding parking fines.”

 

Pete began to shake his head. “No, that’s not right, there were two of them. I saw them, they were twins.”

 

Another specialist started accessing data files on her terminal. “Director, whoever these people are they are deep undercover. There is nothing on any database to identify them. The actor and the singer have been accounted for at other locations when our subjects were at the Tyler mansion.”

 

The Director was starting to get frustrated now. “Come on people, I’m getting more questions than answers here. Let’s see some brainstorming and put the pieces of this puzzle together. What have you got on the other two subjects?”

 

“Jake Simmonds. Geordie lad. Army cadet when he left school. Member of Greenpeace, Anti Vivisection League, bit of an idealist. No criminal record though, not an extremist.” The white coated man continued to tap the keyboard.

 

“Oh, now this is interesting. Director, I think we may be onto something. Mrs Moore, aka Angela Price. Secretary and office assistant at Cybus industries. Disappeared six months ago, husband reported her missing. Local police have an open file on her. It looks like she went undercover to work with the Preachers.”

 

“Good work Stephen. So we’ve got three people we have background on and three we don’t. Ideas?” Yvonne was in overdrive now.

 

“Foreign operatives using prosthetics to change their appearance and coordinate the Preachers,” someone suggested.

 

“Not bad, follow that, see if you can trace any movements of friendly agents over the last six months.”

 

“What about the blue box? Advanced tech cloaking device? But how did they move it once it was cloaked?” another person asked.

 

“The Doctor said they had five minutes of power and they had to go,” Pete told them. “It sounded as though the box was some kind of vehicle.”

 

Yvonne took Pete’s arm and gently pulled him to the corner of the office. “You said in your report that they told you they were from a parallel world. The girl said there were another Pete and Jackie Tyler. How do you feel about that?”

 

Pete felt another wave of grief wash over him at the mention of his dead wife. “I don’t know. It’s all a bit far fetched. There was something about the girl though; I started talking to her as if I’d known her all her life. I just put it down to good training as a secret agent or something.”

 

“And you don’t think metal robots stealing brains is far fetched,” Yvonne said with a lopsided smile.

 

Pete allowed himself a single laugh. “When you put it like that, no. But I’ve never been one for science fiction really.”

 

“Well I think it’s about time we put that right then.” Yvonne headed for the door. “Come with me Pete, I’ve got something to show you. The President has asked for top level clearance for you, so are you okay with the official secrets act and the defence of the state act?”

 

Pete frowned. “Er, yes. But I thought I already signed all that stuff.”

 

“You have, yes. But this is on a whole new level of secret,” she said with a wink as they walked out the door.

 

+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

 

Pete Tyler’s jaw nearly hit the floor. He silently gaped at the large warehouse in front of him. His brain couldn’t take in all this new information, he was in culture shock. He knew from this moment on, his view of the world would never be the same again.

 

“Is that.... is that a....?” he tried to ask.

 

“A flying saucer? Yes,” Yvonne answered.

 

The large warehouse actually had a virtually intact alien vehicle that happened to be saucer shaped. As he looked around, he could see crates, bins and benches full of weird and wonderful equipment.

 

“You have gotta be kiddin’ me. What the hell is this place? Do you produce props for the film industry or something?” It was the only rational explanation Pete could come up with.

 

“Oh that’s good. Do you mind if we use that one?” She had the fixed, polished smile on her face. “No this is all recovered alien technology that has fallen to earth. The saucer over there, that came down in Wales in 1974. You might remember it; it was in the Berwyn Mountains in Llandrillo, Merionethshire.” Pete shook his head.

 

“What do you know about the Torchwood Institute?” Yvonne asked him.

 

“I’ve never really thought about it before. Aren’t you scientific consultants to the government, y’know, investigating unexplained phenomena, sightings of ghosts, big cats, stuff like that?” Pete said, scratching his head.

 

Yvonne smiled. “That’s our public face yes, but in reality we defend Britain from the threat of alien incursions. We salvage alien tech and try to figure out how it works and then retro-engineer it.”

 

Pete was stunned. “Are you tellin’ me this stuff is for real?”

 

“Oh yes, it’s real alright. Since the institute’s inception in 1879 by Queen Victoria, we have been at the forefront of technological innovation. The commercial applications of the retro-engineered products helps to fund our operations.”

 

“Wow,” is all Pete could say.

 

“So, now you know all this, what do you think of their claims about a parallel world?” Yvonne asked him.

  
“I believe them,” Pete replied.

 


	2. Get to France

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mickey and Jake travel to Paris and strengthen their friendship.

 

** Chapter Two **

 

 

Mickey and Jake were on a ferry from Dover to Calais with another 45 minutes to go before they docked. They sat in the restaurant having a snack and a cup of coffee while they planned their route to Paris.

 

Jake’s laptop was connected to the ferry’s wifi service so that he could contact the Preachers and arrange to meet at the Cyber-factory on the outskirts of Paris.

 

“Our contacts name is Pierre, he says he’ll meet us in a layby on the Carrefour de l'Europe before the traffic island. The Cyber-factory is on an industrial estate just off the island.” Jake read off the screen.

 

“How many of them are there?” Mickey asked.

 

“Five of them. Oh that’s useful. Pierre says that Torchwood has contacted the Police nationalé and told them about our exploits at Battersea. They are going to coordinate a raid on Cybus Industries Francé so that we can disable the ear pod transmitter and Cybermen.”

 

Mickey laughed to himself and Jake looked up from the laptop.

 

“What’s so funny?” he asked.

 

“I was just thinkin’ that it takes a load of policemen to do what Rose and the Doctor did on their own.”

 

“They must be quite a team,” Jake said. Mickey just nodded; he had a faraway look on his face.

 

It didn’t occur to either of them to ask how Torchwood knew they were going to France.

 

They quickly passed through customs (not realising that their passage had been authorised by the French government), and headed towards Paris on the Autoroute du Nord, a three lane motorway. They started

chatting to pass the time.

 

“So, what’s it like where you come from then?” Jake asked as he took his turn to drive the LDV van.

 

“Eh? Oh, you mean my world. Well, it’s pretty much the same as here really, until somethin’ weird turns up.”

 

“What’cha mean by weird?” Jake asked him, smiling.

 

“Well, the thing that really gave it away for us was the Zepplins, what is it with this world and Zepplins,” Mickey asked with a laugh.

 

Jake looked amazed. “What, you mean you don’t travel by air in your world?”

 

“Oh yeah, we travel by air, but we use planes, y’know with wings and jet engines.”

 

“What?! Are you crazy? Have you seen how those things drop out of the sky when they go wrong?” Jake was incredulous.

 

“Yeah, but it doesn’t happen very often,” Mickey told him.

 

“It doesn’t happen at all with an airship. If the engine fails, they just drift about until a tug comes and tows them back to a landing tower.”

 

“I hadn’t thought about that. Y’know that sounds a lot safer way to travel by air, but aren’t they slow, flimsy and prone to burstin’ into flame?”

 

“That was 70 years ago. Things have moved on since then, The airframe is made of lightweight carbon composites with vectored thrust jet engines strapped to them. The ones you saw in London were the sightseeing Zepplins, slow and with a retro-look for tourists.”

 

Jake checked the mirror and then indicated and pulled into the middle lane to overtake a small Citroen. He didn’t notice the car behind, packed with camping gear and being driven by a couple of holiday makers. Why should he?

 

“Anything else that you’ve noticed?” Jake continued.

 

“The Royal Family, you haven’t got one. What happened there then?” Mickey enquired.

 

“It was before I was born, so all I know is what my parents told me and what I learnt at school. Apparently they were declared medically unfit to be monarchs of the realm and taken away somewhere secluded to live out the rest of their lives.”

 

“Medically unfit?” Mickey asked.

 

“Yeah, there are loads of theories on the internet. Inbreeding, mask wearin’ alien lizards, bitten by a werewolf, all sorts,” Jake said.

 

“Hang on, werewolf? Who was bitten by a werewolf?” Mickey remembered Rose telling him about a werewolf in Scotland when they met up at Deffry Vale High school.

 

“I don’t know,” Jake said. History wasn’t really his subject. “Queen Victoria I think. Why, is it important?”

 

“Oh man, you’re not going to believe this! Rose and the Doctor came back from the 1800’s telling me they had saved Queen Victoria from a werewolf. We had a right laugh when Rose said I had to call her Dame Rose, as she’d been knighted.”

 

“No way! A werewolf! Who’d have thought it?” Jake laughed.

 

“It wasn’t a real werewolf as such, it was an alien that had landed hundreds of years before.”

 

They were passing the junction for the town of Roye, approximately halfway to their destination. The Holiday makers were still there, a few cars behind them.

 

Jake hesitantly asked Mickey a question. “If you don’t mind me askin’ Mickey, what’s with you and Rose? Did this Doctor fella steal your girl?”

 

Mickey looked over at him, his face betrayed the truth. “Spotted that did ya’? Yeah, I suppose he did in a way. Me and Rose used to be an item, doin’ fine we was until the Doctor saved her life and whisked her off in the TARDIS.”

 

“TARDIS?” Jake asked.

 

“Yeah, that blue box is an alien time machine,” Mickey told him.

 

“A bit cramped isn’t it?” Jake observed.

 

Mickey started laughing, a real belly laugh. “If you only knew. I spent days wanderin’ around that place and never found all the rooms.” Jake gave him a disbelieving look. “No, honestly. It had a hospital, library, gourmet kitchen and even a swimmin’ pool. Anyway, Rose started travellin’ with ‘im and I couldn’t compete with the kind of life she was havin’ with him. We met up in Cardiff once and tried to reconcile but the Doctor always came first for Rose.” Mickey had stopped laughing and had a sad look on his face. He kept telling himself he was over Rose. He just had to believe it was all.

 

After a few hours of driving they started to approach the outskirts of Paris with the airport to the east of them. Mickey was stunned by the sight of all those Zepplins anchored to docking towers.

 

They finally arrived at the off ramp for Carrefour de l'Europe, a dual carriageway that lead on to the industrial estate. As they approached the traffic island, they saw a layby on the left with a number of trailers and tractor units parked up, and a silver Renault Kangoo Maxi Crew van with tinted glass. Jake pulled in behind it and turned off the engine. The tourists in the Citroen pulled in a few trailers back where they went unnoticed.

 

Jake and Mickey got out of the van and stretched their legs, backs and shoulders. A middle aged man got out of the passenger side of the Renault and walked towards them. The side door slid open and a younger man climbed out.

 

“Bonjour, vous devez être Jake,” the man said. Mickey and Jake looked at each other and back to the stranger.

 

“Eh?” Mickey said.

 

The man grinned at them. “Ah, no Francé. Do not worry I will speak Inglish. You are Jake, no?”

 

“I am Jake yes, and this is Mickey.” Pierre grabbed each of them in turn and kissed each cheek in the traditional French greeting.

 

“It iz so good to meet ze ‘eroes of ze battle of Batterzea,” Pierre told them. “But tell me, iz it true about Madam Moore, zat she died?”

 

“Yeah, I’m afraid so,” Jake said. “And Ricky, Mickey here is his twin brother.”

 

“Zat iz a shame, such courageous people. Perhaps we will have time to mourn their passing later. Who knows, we may be mourning more before ze day iz ended,” Pierre said quietly.

 

“Thin Jimmy was arrested a few days ago as well. I’m hopin’ after all this is done they will let him go,” Jake added.

 

“So what happens now?” Mickey asked.

 

“Ah yes, now it iz time for, how do you say, ze shit to hit ze fan,” Pierre said with a smile. “Jean-Luc, le temps de téléphoner à votre frère.” (time to phone your brother) “‘iz brother iz an officer in ze Police Nationalé. Come, meet ze team.”

 

Pierre walked back to the van and stood at the door, beckoning for them to follow. Inside the van were two men and two women, dressed in black and ‘tooling’ up with semi automatic weapons. Pierre introduced everyone. One bearded man, introduced as Claude took a hunting rifle out of a long, thin case. He flipped open a briefcase to reveal hundreds of rounds of the biggest bullets they had ever seen.

 

When he smiled they could see some teeth missing. He attached a telescopic sight, opened the breech and started loading the 20 gauge slugs into the rifle.

 

Pierre handed Jake and Mickey a gun each.

 

“What the hell do I do with this?” Mickey asked. He’d never even held a gun before, let alone fired one.

 

“Here, let me show you,” Jake said. He ran through the basic safety drill for handling a firearm, the safety catch, loading the breech, changing the magazine and ending with ‘point and shoot’.

 

“We might as well throw sticks at them for all the good these will do,” Mickey said.

 

“It’s all we’ve got mate, it’ll have to do.” As Jake prepped his weapon, the wail of sirens could be heard in the distance.

 

“Allonz-y,” Pierre called out as everyone got into the van.

 

They drove at speed out of the layby, down to the traffic island and turned left. The first left again took them onto the industrial estate on Rue Germain Planque, and the large Cybus Industries factory unit.

 

They pulled up in the parking space in front of the reception area of the three storey factory. They all jumped out of the van and stood in front, facing the reception. They all looked to the right as a screech of tyres announced the arrival of the Police nationalé.

 

Two vans screeched to a halt in front of them and a dozen officers in black overalls, bulletproof vests and caps ran out and took up positions around the site. The commander came over and spoke to Pierre, who then addressed Jake and Mickey.

 

“He haz instructions from ze Prezident to stop ze Inglish from taking any action against Cybus Industries.”

 

“What?” Mickey said. “The President? What the hell is goin’ on?”.

 

Before Pierre could answer, the Citroen car came around the corner and pulled into the parking space next to the Preachers. Everyone watched as a man and woman, apparently tourists got out of the car.

 

“Jake Simmonds, Mickey Smith, the President of the Peoples Republic of Great Britain is requesting that you take no action against Cybus Industries Francé,” the man said.

 

“And who the hell are you?” Jake asked him. The man took a wallet out of inside pocket and handed it over, it contained an identification card.

 

“Duncan Prescott, senior Special Operations agent, Torchwood One. There have been.... developments since your successful operation at Battersea,” he told them.

 

The woman came and stood next to him and showed her identification. “Christine ‘Chrissie’ Anderson, Special operations technical support, Torchwood One.”

 

“Wot kind of developments?” Pierre asked them, coming to stand alongside the two Englishmen.

 

“Public opinion,” Duncan said. “People have been going missing all over the world, kidnapped by John Lumic’s henchmen and put inside the Cybermen. These people have friends and relatives, and they are calling for the governments to help them.”

 

“Are they crazy?!” Mickey asked, incredulous. “Their humanity is gone! The moment you remove the emotion inhibitor, they are overwhelmed and they die screaming!”

 

“We know that,” Chrissie said. “But the politicians have to serve the people who elect them. So the factories are being sealed while they try to sort the problem. Torchwood and UNIT have been asked to look at the technology to see if the process can be reversed.”

 

“I don’t believe this! We’ve come all this way for nothin’?” Mickey asked. “What about Ricky and Angela? Did they die for nothin’?” He was getting angry now. He had travelled with the Doctor long enough to know when something was wrong and needed to be put right.

 

“No Mickey, they did not die for nothing,” Duncan said with compassion. “You all saved millions of lives in London, and no one can take that away from you. But remember, thousands of people are in those Cybermen, not dead, but not alive either. They’re in limbo, waiting for someone like us to rescue them if we can.”

 

Mickey opened his mouth to speak, but he had nothing to say. Duncan was right. The Doctor would do everything he could to help them, no matter who they were or what they had done.

 

Pierre was translating the conversation for the Preachers and they started to nod. No one had considered the ultimate victims in all this, the Cybermen themselves.

 

Jake had a puzzled look on his face. “I’ve just thought about somethin’, how come you know who we are, and how did you know we were comin’ here?” he asked the Torchwood agents.

 

Chrissie smiled as she answered. “That’s my area of expertise. We identified you Jake Simmonds from security footage at the Tyler mansion. Mickey Smith, you’re a bit of a mystery to us. Pete Tyler told us your name, but we have no intelligence on you. We know you are part of a team that is headed by a man called the Doctor, but which agency do you work for?”

 

Mickey laughed. “Agency? We don’t work for any agency! We came here by accident.”

 

“Okay, have it your way. You are deep under cover anyway. As for knowing where you were going, when Jake bought the ferry ticket with his debit card, we tracked it and surmised you were coming to Cybus Industries Francé to repeat your success.”

 

“And you came chargin’ down here to stop us,” Mickey said. Duncan walked over to his car and opened the hatchback. He took out a large suitcase and put it on the ground.

 

“Actually, we came to help you,” he said as he opened the suitcase. Inside were two large, futuristic looking rifles. “Our orders changed on the way here, but we can still help you. I am authorised to compensate you for any expenses you have incurred and.... we would like to offer the pair of you a job.”

 

“What?” Mickey and Jake said together.

 

“In Battersea you both showed the qualities we look for in our agents and Mickey, if you would consider switching from your current agency, we’d like you to work for us.”

 

Mickey and Jake grinned at each other and gave a high five. “Okay, you’ve got a deal. When do we start?”

 

Duncan smiled and shook their hands. “While you’re here, why not spend some time with your friends and enjoy Paris? We’ll see you in London next Monday and start your induction into Torchwood.”

 

Chrissie handed over a credit card to Jake. “Here, use this,” she said. “Torchwood will pick up the tab.”

  
“Result!” Mickey said with a grin.

 


	3. Torchwood

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mickey and Jake start their new job and Pete gets a history lesson.

 

** Chapter Three **

 

 

Peter Alan Tyler sat on his comfy leather sofa nursing a glass of mature malt whisky. The room was dark except for the light from the fire in the hearth, silent except for the regular ‘tock’ from the grandfather clock in the hall and occasional ‘pop’ and ‘crackle’ from the burning logs.

 

He took a swig of the brown liquid and felt its warming glow travel down his gullet. It was Friday evening, a week and a day since the madness of John Lumic and his brilliant, evil creations had changed his world forever.

 

Pete had spent the last week in guest quarters at Torchwood Tower, unable to face coming home to a large, empty, silent house. He had spent the week having an orientation of the institute and finding out that half of what he thought he knew was wrong.

 

He had watched in amazement as they effortlessly located Jake and Mickey from the number plate on their 400 series LDV van. N355 FWU was spotted by the bridge mounted cameras on the M20 motorway.

 

Torchwood seemed to be able to hack into any computer or camera network they wanted to, and when Jake bought a ferry ticket to Calais with his debit card, they had the date, time and duration of journey within seconds.

 

Two senior agents were dispatched to rendezvous with the ‘dynamic duo’ as Yvonne had dubbed them, to supply back up to the Preachers.

 

And then the ‘bat phone’ had rung, the direct line to the President. When the story broke in the media, there was an outcry from the public who had missing relatives and suspected, and rightly so, that they were trapped inside the Cybermen. The support mission turned to an intercept mission to prevent any action being taken against the French Cybus factory.

 

Pete took another swig. He thought about the history of the Torchwood Institute, the history he and the public knew, and the real history that he now knew.

 

Founded by Queen Victoria in 1879 after being attacked by an alien werewolf creature. (True)

 

Its prime directive is to defend Earth against extraterrestrial threats. (True)

 

After that it gets a bit grey. The Torchwood Institute had begun to use their findings to restore the British Empire to its former glory, and in so doing started to misuse its power and authority.

 

They were keepers and protectors of the royal secret, that they were werewolves. On the two nights of a full moon, Torchwood would restrain the affected family members and protect them from publicity. Until one night when a near miss made it obvious that the conspiracy was becoming too big to contain.

 

It was declared that the Royal Family were medically unfit to be the heads of state, with the historical precedent of ‘the madness of King George’ being bandied about. They were taken to a secret location to live out their lives in peace.

 

The public face of Torchwood was to supply specialist scientific advice and support to the government. With the retro-engineered alien tech they were able to investigate unsolvable crimes with the police to gain convictions. They aided search and rescue missions to locate missing people as well as exploring and explaining unusual natural phenomena.

 

The private face of Torchwood was more in keeping with the original charter, to defend Earth against terrestrial and extraterrestrial threats. The charter seemed to have been extended to, ‘if its alien, it’s ours’, and that didn’t sit well with Pete. He smiled to himself when he thought about the fact that Torchwood had become the ‘Men in Black’ of UFO legend.

 

Suddenly from nowhere the vision of a Cyberman saying it used to be Jacqueline Tyler popped into his head. He took another swig of the whisky. This kept happening, and every time it took him by surprise and brought tears to his eyes.

 

He sat on the comfy sofa, nursing the remainder of the mature malt whisky. Watching the flames dance on the burning logs, listening to the ‘tock’ of the grandfather clock announcing the passage of time.

 

 

+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

 

 

Mickey and Jake were back on the ferry, travelling in the opposite direction from a week ago. Pierre and the other Preachers had shown them ‘their’ Paris. Not the tourist haunts, but the places Parisians frequented. They went to the best cafes, restaurants and clubs, as well as the normal sightseeing things that visitors do.

 

They were sat in the van, waiting for the ferry to dock so that they could disembark and head back to London. They had gone to Paris with only the clothes they were wearing. They came back in designer jeans, shirts and jackets, courtesy of Torchwood.

 

Their accommodation had been comfortable as well, choosing the five star Hôtel de Crillon on the Place de la Concorde. Maybe they were taking advantage a little, but what the hell, Torchwood and London owed them.

 

Jake dropped Mickey at his gran’s house, agreeing to pick him up in the morning to travel to Torchwood tower together. Mickey watched him drive off and knocked the letterbox.

 

Rita Anne opened the door and gave him a big hug before letting him in. Once inside and comfortably seated, Mickey told her about the trip to France and the offer of a job at Torchwood.

 

“I always hoped you would do well for yourself Ricky, and now you have. Lord be praised,” she said with a beaming smile.

 

 

09:00.  February 12th 2007 . Torchwood Institute.

 

 

Mickey and Jake walked through the large glass atrium of One Canada Square, commonly known as Canary Wharf, and headed for the reception area opposite the entrance. A pleasant young woman in a business suit looked up from her paperwork and smiled.

 

“Good morning, welcome to the Torchwood Institute. How may I help you?” she said with a smooth, well practiced greeting.

 

“Well good morning to you,” Jake said giving her one of his boyish, irresistible smiles. “My name is Jake Simmonds.... Oh, and this is Mickey Smith. We were told to come here this morning for a job.” He continued to smile at the attractive blue eyed brunette.

 

She looked down at her screen and entered their names. Their photographs appeared on the screen with all their data.

 

“Ah yes, the new recruits. You’ll need to go to human resources on the fifth floor.” She handed over two ID badges on lanyards. “Please wear these at all times while you are inside the building. The lifts are over there.” She pointed to their left where they could see a row of lift doors.

 

“What happens if we don’t wear the ID?” Mickey asked.

 

Her smile never faltered. “Then the building will detect that you are inside with no ID to match and the intruder alarms will sound and you will be very unpopular,” she said, her smile turning to a grin.

 

“Well that told you,” Jake said. “And you are?” he asked the now very attractive blue eyed brunette.

 

“I am the duty receptionist for this particular shift,” she said, unphased by Jake’s winning smile. They just stood there smiling at each other.

 

“Human Resources? Fifth floor? Lifts over there?” she reminded them.

 

“Oh yeah, right. Fifth floor.” They walked over to the lifts and pressed the ‘up’ button.

 

“You flirt!” Mickey said laughing.

 

“Yeah!” is all Jake could say as he looked at the reception desk while waiting for the lift.

 

The lift announced its arrival with a ‘ping’ and the doors opened.

 

“See you later duty receptionist!” Jake called out as they entered the lift. Mickey grabbed the back of his jacket and pulled him into the lift. The duty receptionist laughed and shook her head. He was rather cute though.

 

In HR, they had their photographs for permanent ID badges taken, DNA swabs from their mouths, retinal scans and fingerprints. They had paperwork about terms and conditions of employment, salary, annual leave entitlement and all the other legal requirements of any ‘normal’ job.

 

They were then sent to the second floor to medical. The whole of the second floor was a hospital, with a clinic, pharmacy, ward and high dependency unit. Mickey and Jake had a full medical history taken before giving blood and urine samples.

 

They laughed at each other dressed in hospital gowns, when the doctor called them into the examination room one by one. After the thorough examination, they got dressed and were told to help themselves to a cup of coffee in the clinic reception.

 

A smartly dressed woman with permed hair stepped out of the lift and walked towards them.

 

“Jake Simmonds? Mickey Smith? My name’s Yvonne Hartman, I’m the current director of Torchwood One Institute.” She smiled and held out her hand. The two new recruits stood and shook her hand.

 

“I hope you are being well looked after,” she told them.

 

“Er, yeah, fine thanks. Except for the finger up the bum,” Mickey said. Yvonne burst out laughing. It was refreshing to have someone who wasn’t afraid to tell it like it is.

 

“Sorry about that. It’s one of those things we are legally bound to,” she said still laughing. “It’s legal affairs that bring me here for the next part of your induction. Shall we go to my office?” She extended her left arm in the direction of the lifts.

 

The director’s office was on the 45th floor and had a spectacular view over London. Mickey and Jake were sat in comfortable leather chairs with booklets on their laps. The title said it all.

 

‘The Official Secrets Act 1989 (c. 6)’

 

“This is serious shit,” Mickey whispered to Jake.

 

“Serious shit indeed Mr. Smith, which is why we are going to take our time going through it so that you fully appreciate the ‘serious shittiness’ of it before you sign it.” She laughed at the ‘serious shittiness’ comment, she would use that again, it lightened the mood a bit.

 

“Right, let’s get some coffee sent in and we’ll make a start.” Yvonne went through each point of the act explaining the legal jargon and giving an example of what they could and couldn’t do under the act.

 

When they had gone through all the pages, she suggested little scenarios and asked what they would do. When she was satisfied that they understood the spirit of the legislation, she handed over the paperwork for them to sign.

 

“Well gentlemen, welcome to Torchwood. Any questions?” she said with a warm smile. Jake raised his hand.

 

Yvonne giggled. “You don’t have to raise your hand Jake. What is it?”

 

“I was wonderin’ if you could tell me the name of the duty receptionist downstairs,” he said with a grin. Yvonne burst out laughing. These boys were going to fit right in at Torchwood.

 

Yvonne picked up the phone on her desk and tapped the numbers on the keypad. She smiled at the ‘dynamic duo’ while she waited for the pick up.

 

“Hi, it’s Yvonne. Would you like to come to my office and meet the new recruits? I thought you could take them to Special Operations and make the introductions.... That’s great, see you in five.” She hung up the phone.

 

“There’s someone I’d like you to meet. He’s not long started with us. He’ll take you down to S.O.U and introduce you to your fellow operatives. Captain McNab will arrange all of your specialist training, while Dr. Taylor will be responsible for your technology training.”

 

Mickey and Jake turned around as the office door opened and their jaws dropped. They jumped up out of the chairs and hugged Pete Tyler, exchanging greetings and asking questions about their adventures.

 

“Take your time going to S.O.U, I think you’ve got a lot to catch up with,” she told them as they headed out the door.

 

They took the lift down to the third floor and Jake stepped out, but before Mickey left, Pete held the ‘door open’ button.

 

“Mickey, I was wondering if we could have a chat when you’ve finished today? Beer’s are on me,” Pete said.

 

Mickey smiled. “Yeah sure, why not. Shall I see you at reception?”

 

“Yeah, that’d be great. Thanks Mickey.” They stepped out of the lift and Pete took them to the standby room of the Special Operations Unit. It was a large room with comfy sofas and chairs, a dining table with chairs and a kitchen area with a dividing counter.

 

On one wall were a row of large display screens. The first one was showing the Countdown programme. It was the numbers game and one of the agents had worked it out in seconds.

 

“How the hell does she do that?” one of them asked.

 

Another screen displayed information from the Torchwood database about current operations around the country. This one would alert the team of any situation they would be called to deal with.

 

The third screen was linked to games consoles and a group were playing a combat simulation game. The players paused the game as Pete, Mickey and Jake entered. A man sitting at the dining table stood and walked over to them. He was around six feet tall with short grey hair and a well groomed grey beard.

 

Pete shook his hand and smiled. “Hi Andy, how’s it going?” he asked him.

 

“It’s the ‘Q’ word at the moment, but we’ve heard a whisper of an incident out at Richmond Park. We could possibly get a shout for that,” he said.

 

Mickey heard the name ‘Andy’ and thought about it. ‘Andy McNab’ in his world was an ex-SAS soldier who wrote a book.

 

“You weren’t in the SAS by any chance were you?” Mickey asked him.

 

“How did you know that?” McNab gave Mickey an intense stare.

 

Mickey was a bit unnerved by the stare. “Er, I’d like to tell ya but I just signed the official secrets act,” he said with a smile.

 

McNab stared for a second longer, the stare you get from security people who take their job seriously, and then burst out laughing. He slapped Mickey on the back.

 

“I like him!” he said to Pete.

 

Pete laughed and started the introductions. “Andy, this is Mickey Smith and Jake Simmonds, the new recruits.”

 

McNab shook Mickey’s hand first. “Mickey Smith, twin brother Ricky, sorry to hear about him by the way. You live with your Grandmother Rita Anne at number 1, Warterton Street, SE 15. I like that, family are important. You were technical support for someone code named the Doctor and another operative called Rose. You and Jake disabled the ear pod transmitter and sent the deactivation code to the Doctor.”

 

He turned to Jake and shook his hand. “Jake Simmonds, you and your family moved from Newcastle to London when you were 13. You live with your family at 15 Howden Street SE 15. Army Cadet training for two years. That’ll be useful for you. Member of Greenpeace and the Anti Vivisection League. Worked with the Preachers, sorry to hear about Angela Price, a brave woman, we could do with a few more like her. You worked with Mickey here to bring down the Cybers at Battersea.”

 

Captain McNab had just demonstrated why he was the boss. He had done his homework and applied the unofficial motto of his old unit, ‘perfect preparation prevents piss-poor performance’.

 

“Ladies and gentlemen, it is my pleasure to introduce the heroes of the battle of Battersea.” He started to clap his hands and everyone in the room stood and applauded them. Mickey and Jake just stood there looking embarrassed.

 

McNab introduced them to the members of blue watch.

 

“Each watch has four pairs and a watch leader,” he told them. “The guys on the xbox are Stuart ‘Irish’ Sinclair and ‘Welsh’ Pete Davies.” The men came over and shook hands.

 

“The maths wizard over there is Gwen ‘Numbers’ O’Toole, she’s partnered with Clive ‘Bart’ Simpson over there.” They also came over and shook hands.

 

“Danny ‘John Boy’ Walton and Andre ‘The Giant’ Coultarde, he’s Swiss,” McNab said grinning. Mickey and Jake shook their hands.

 

“And over in the kitchen we’ve got Julia ‘Van’ De Graff and Craig ‘Ace’ Rimmer.”

 

“Hi!” Julia called over the counter. She held up a frying pan. “We’re on kitchen duty today,” she told them.

 

“Andy? does everyone have a nickname?” Mickey asked.

 

He laughed. “Yes, sorry about that. It’s a tradition I brought with me from the unit. Everyone gets a nickname. You’ll get yours when you’re back from your basic training with the Unified Task Force.”

 

Just then an alarm went off and the display screen gave them the intelligence on the ‘shout’. Andy downloaded the information on to his tablet.

 

“It’s Richmond Park! Missing child. Police are asking for technical support. Let’s load up the scanners people and roll.” The team sprung into action and started grabbing bags, cases and weapons, just in case. In less than a minute the room was empty and someone on countdown had got a nine letter word.

 

 

+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

 

 

Pete brought over the beers to the table and sat opposite Mickey.

 

“Interesting day?” He asked him. Mickey nodded his head as he took a swig of his pint.

 

“You can say that again! I never thought I’d be doin’ anythin’ like this when I left school,” he said wiping his mouth with the back of his hand.

 

“Did you ever think you’d be living in.... a parallel world?” Pete asked tentatively.

 

“Well no, how could I. I still have trouble believing it myself,” Mickey said with a laugh.

 

“Is it real? Are you really from a parallel world? Is there another me and Jackie?” Pete asked him quietly.

 

“Well, sort of. Rose’s dad was killed when she was six months old; he was hit by a car. Her mum is still alive. Lives in a flat on the Powell estate.”

 

“48, Bucknall House,” they said together.

 

“This is just too weird,” Pete said. He looked thoughtful. “Were you and Rose.... Y’know, together?”

 

“We were once. Doin’ alright as well, until He came along and whisked her away in the TARDIS. After that she fell in love with the lifestyle and then she fell in love with him.” Mickey had a sad look on his face.

 

“I was a bit nasty to her before she left,” Pete said suddenly. “She called me ‘Dad’. Why would she do that? I mean there are loads of Pete Tyler’s out there, just check the phone book. I had just lost Jackie and my head was all over the place, I just couldn’t talk to her.”

 

“She probably called you ‘Dad’ because you look like him. She met him y’know,” Mickey told him. Pete looked puzzled. “The Doctor took her back to the day he was killed. She tried to save him but time wouldn’t let her. Pete realised that he should be dead and threw himself at the car to correct history. Rose knelt by him and comforted him as he died. I can’t imagine what that was like for her.”

 

Mickey told Pete about his world, the similarities, the differences. He told him about the Doctor and his TARDIS and the adventures they had travelling through time and space. They eventually finished their beers and stood to leave.

 

“Thanks for the chat Mickey, it’s helped. I’ll give you a lift home,” he said as he took out his mobile and called his driver.

 

They pulled up outside Rita Anne’s house in the run down street. Pete looked out of the windows and was reminded of his own humble beginnings.

 

“Is this where you lived in your world?” Pete asked him.

 

“Originally, yeah. But then my Gran died and I got my own place near Rose. When I found my Gran was still alive here, I just had to stay. I owe her so much for bringin’ me up right.”

 

“Can I meet her?” Pete was intrigued by this obviously impressive woman.

 

“Sure, come on in.” He now had Ricky’s key and let himself in.

 

“GRAN! I’ve brought someone who wants to meet you!” Mickey called ahead as they entered the humble home.

 

“It’s not some more of your suspect friends is it?” She asked as she came out of the kitchen. “How was your first day at work?”

 

Mickey kissed her on the cheek. “It was great, I’m going to enjoy workin’ there. Gran, this is Pete Tyler, y’know, Vitex boss Pete Tyler. He’s workin’ there too at the moment.” Rita Anne’s mouth fell open.

 

“Oh my Lord! Mr Tyler! Oh you’ll have to excuse the mess, I had no idea we’d be having visitors.” Pete looked around at the tidy living room and smiled.

 

“It looks fine to me Mrs Smith. I must say I’m surprised to see everything so tidy when you have visual impairment,” he complemented her.

 

“Oh thank you, you’re too kind. Please, call me Rita. Will you stay for a cup of tea Mr Tyler?”

 

“That would be nice Rita, and you must call me Pete.”

 

They sat and chatted about their day at Torchwood and then about life in general. Rita Anne quickly realised that there were no ‘heirs and graces’ with Pete Tyler. He had the same humble beginnings as Rita and Mickey and had worked hard to improve himself.

 

Pete could see why Mickey loved this woman; she was a force to be reckoned with. She was fearless, proud and very religious. Her moral compass had kept Ricky-Mickey on the straight and narrow. An idea was starting to form in his head.

 

“Rita, I don’t know if you are aware, but I recently lost my wife in the Cybermen attack. My big old house is now so empty and quiet without her, it doesn’t feel like home anymore.” Rita Anne reached out for his hand and Pete took it. He felt her squeeze his hand affectionately.

 

“You poor man. I am so sorry.”

 

Pete continued. “I was wondering.... if you and Mickey would come and stay with me at the mansion. It would be company for me and my staff would look after you, or not, I get the feeling you are an independent person.”

 

“Oh Pete, that is a very generous offer, but I don’t think I could leave this old house of mine,” Rita Anne said.

 

“It’s not generous, it’s selfish. I want my house to have its soul back, and for that it needs people living in it.” Pete then appealed to her religion. “If the Lord has brought us together, who am I to question it?”

 

Rita Anne chuckled. “Pete Tyler, I can see why you are so successful. Alright I will come and visit for a while and we’ll see how it goes.”

  
“Thank you Rita, you’ll love it. You can trust me on this,” he said with his roguish smile.

 


	4. Out with the old, in with the new

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pete, Mickey and Jake get basic training.  
> Torchwood isn't all that it seems.  
> five million Cybermen disappear.

 

** Chapter Four **

 

 

Basic training for Torchwood operatives was a military style training organised with UNIT. There was some physical training and team building exercises involving problem solving. Pete did well at these having introduced them at Vitex for his executives.

 

They had firearms safety and maintenance, learning how to strip and reassemble a variety of automatic, semi-automatic and manual weapons, and learning how to handle them safely.

 

When they were completely confident with the weapons, they were taken to the firing range for target practice. They learnt that each weapon had a particular ‘kick’ when you pulled the trigger.

 

Finally, they were let loose with the paintball guns, both outdoors in a wooded environment, in a mock up street, and in the maze of corridors in an office building. There were other operatives who were acting as terrorists, aliens and hostages. The trainees had to identify those who were hostile and those who were not and decide whether to shoot or not.

 

Back at Torchwood, Dr. Malcolm Taylor, scientific advisor for both Torchwood and UNIT, went through the advanced technology available to S.O.U. This included all sorts of handheld devices that were normally the size of a filing cabinet. Analysers, scanners, sound and vision enhancers, and a stun gun that fired a packet of energy to render people unconscious. ‘The Doctor would approve of that one’ Mickey thought.

 

After the two weeks of training, Pete went back to Vitex to touch base with his executive team and make sure everything was running smoothly. He would be dividing his time between Vitex and Torchwood from now on.

 

One of his tasks was to rebuild public trust in Cybus Industries after the events of February first. He was the ‘Richard Branson’ of this world, with his public profile, people oriented business style and roguish smile, he had won the trust of Vitex customers.

 

Richard Branson on the other hand had never met Mike Oldfield here. Oldfield had been touring as a session musician with a rock musical in Germany when he played his Tubular Bells demo tape to a sound technician. The technician played it to a producer and that was that.

 

Without the profits of Tubular Bells, Branson never hit the big time and never formed the Virgin Empire. He had still been successful though, because that was the sort of man he was. He now fronted a popular TV show called The Apprentice, where his catchphrase was ‘you’re hired’.

 

Pete promised the public that Cybus Industries would produce products that would benefit the planet, society and people’s lives. The retro-engineered tech from Torchwood would be put into production by Cybus industries, and the profits split between the two organisations.

 

And so, London slowly returned to normality. The slow task of opening each Cyberman and retrieving DNA samples from the brains was undertaken. Relatives were contacted when a match was found and a funeral held for each victim.

 

Pete had suggested that Lumic’s personal assets be seized and used to fund the whole operation. Yet another example of his connection with the public and his desire to get Cybus Industries back in favour.

 

 

+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

 

 

It was a month later when Pete had his first inkling that Torchwood wasn’t playing straight.

 

During a casual conversation with Malcolm Taylor in the restaurant one lunchtime, he had hinted that the height and location of Torchwood Tower was not an architectural choice.

 

Pete started looking into the archives for West India Docks on the Isle of Dogs, and when he got to 1987, he found what he was looking for. An anomaly, approximately 200 metres above the ground was detected as a radar black spot at the newly constructed London City Airport.

 

One Canada Square was built and completed in 1991, becoming the tallest building in Britain. Torchwood moved in and started studying the anomaly with all the tech at their disposal. After 15 years, all they have found out is that it’s some sort of ‘crack’ in the fabric of space-time.

 

Although this information wasn’t ‘top’ secret to Torchwood management like Pete, it wasn’t common knowledge and wasn’t discussed by those who knew about it. If they didn’t talk about this seemingly unimportant anomaly, what else didn’t they talk about.

 

Pete told Mickey and Jake about his discovery and they all agreed to keep their eyes and ears open and their mouths shut.

 

It was a week later when all the Cybermen on Earth disappeared!

 

Pete was at home with Mickey and Rita Anne when his mobile rang. He looked at his watch, 11:15 at night, who would phone at this time of night? The phone display said ‘Torchwood’. Pete answered the call.

 

“Pete Tyler?” he said.

 

“Pete, it’s Yvonne. I need you here now; I’m calling in all the managers.”

 

“Why? What’s happened?” he asked, looking over to Mickey who had suddenly taken an interest in the call.

 

“There’s been a.... Development at the Cybus factories. I’ll explain when you get here.” The phone hung up and Pete stared at his phone.

 

“Pete, what is it?” Mickey asked.

 

“That was Yvonne, somethings happened with the Cybermen. Suit up, we’ve got to go.”

 

Although Torchwood was a 24 hour operation, tonight it was even more so. There were people everywhere. Pete and Mickey made there way to S.O.U on the third floor and found the operations room ‘busy’.

 

McNab was standing quietly, listening to technicians and looking at data on screens. Yvonne was trying to get everyone to feed information to Malcolm who was trying to put it all together. Pete walked over to Chrissie ‘Brains’ Anderson who was with S.O.U technical support.

 

“What’s going on?” Pete asked her quietly. Mickey came and stood beside him.

 

“Oh hi Pete, Mickey. We don’t really know. Earlier this evening we had a call from TSG in Paris, they’re the security company keeping an eye on Cybus Industries Francé. One of the patrol officers thought he heard something in the factory and radioed his superior for permission to enter the factory. Probably thought it was a cat or a fox that had gotten inside. The next thing we know is we’re getting a call from TSG headquarters saying the factory is empty!”

 

“What? How? Didn’t anyone see them?” Pete had a string of questions.

 

So did Yvonne.

 

Malcolm Taylor cleared his throat and looked up from his computer. “Okay, these are my preliminary findings,” he said in his strong Welsh accent.

 

“At 22:17 GMT, all global positioning satellites experienced an error in their clocks. These are extremely accurate and gravity distortion compensated. Something on planet Earth slowed the passage of time for 1.28 seconds.” People were about to ask what this had to do with disappearing Cybermen, when he held up his hand and continued.

 

“At 22:20, air traffic control centres reported aircraft disappearing off radar and reappearing seconds later on slightly altered flight paths. At 22:32, weather satellites recorded an average increase in global air temperature of 0.742 degrees Celcius. At 22:45, Torchwood Dispatch received a telephone call from TSG Southwark informing us that the Cybus Industries Francé factory was empty. Phone calls to other factories have confirmed that over five million Cybermen have disappeared.”

 

The room was in a stunned silence.

 

“And?” Yvonne said, looking at Malcolm for answers.

 

“And what? Those are my findings. Drawing conclusions as to what has happened will take a lot longer.” He went back to his computer.

 

Pete nudged Mickey’s elbow and gestured to the door with a nod. Mickey followed him into the corridor as he headed for the lift.

 

“Where we goin’?” he asked Pete as the lift arrived. They stepped in and Pete told him as he pushed the button.

 

“Top floor.”

 

After midnight, the upper floors of Torchwood Tower were quiet and on dimmed, security lighting. They walked from the lifts, along the corridor and found the Directors glass fronted office. Opposite Yvonne’s office was the anomaly research area that the tower had been built for.

 

As they walked into the area, Mickey whispered to Pete. “What we lookin’ for?”

 

“I’m not sure, but if there’s been a distortion of space and time, it makes sense to start looking in a place that is known to have a ‘crack’ in it. If you’ve got a leaking bucket, you need to find the hole.” Pete whispered back.

 

“Good thinking. That’s somethin’ the Doctor would do,” he said with a grin. He took his scanner out of the large chest pocket of his S.O.U uniform and started sweeping the area.

 

“These two large levers are warm, they’ve been used in the last few hours,” Mickey announced.

 

“I wonder what they do?” Pete asked. “That’s something to ask Malcolm later.”

 

“These computers are warm as well. The whole room has been active recently.” Mickey moved through the room and into a temporary area covered with plastic sheeting. Pete was looking on desks for any paperwork that might give clues.

 

“PETE! Get in here,” Mickey called in a loud whisper.

 

“What’ve you found?” Pete quickly moved through the maze of plastic sheeting and found Mickey in front of a lot of high tech equipment and benches filled with Cybermen parts.

 

“It looks like someone has been experimentin’ on Cybermen,” Mickey said scanning the equipment.

 

“And it looks like the Cybermen have been experimenting on that ‘someone’,” Pete replied, kneeling down next to the body of a white coated technician, his head fitted with bits of Cyber technology.

 

“We’re leaving, now. Call Jake and charge up your stunner just in case. We have to get out of the building,” Pete told him.

 

“Where are we goin’,” Mickey asked speed dialling Jake.

 

“To the President. The shits been thrown and now it’s time to switch on the fans.”

 

 

+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

 

 

Yvonne Hartman and the Torchwood executives were in custody and being questioned about the anomaly research on the top floor of Torchwood Tower. UNIT soldiers had entered the building and business was suspended. Pete, Mickey and Jake went to S.O.U and asked them to cooperate with UNIT until the whole thing was sorted out

 

When Harriet Jones got the call from Pete Tyler, she knew she had made the right choice in asking him to work at Torchwood. She had first met him at a business convention she attended with the President. He seemed to be a lovable rogue who had dragged himself out of the gutter and made something of himself. The President spoke very highly of him, and now she knew why.

 

Harriet Jones had asked Pete to take over as director of Torchwood. He didn’t think he had the technical background to be director, but Harriet said that she wanted someone she could trust.

 

Pete, Mickey and Jake stood in Yvonne Hartman’s office and looked around. It was 06:00 and none of them had slept, and yet the adrenaline kept them going, along with the caffeine.

 

“Well, here we are then, the three musketeers,” Mickey said with a grin.

 

Pete laughed. “I don’t know about that, I feel more like the three stooges.” They all laughed.

 

“So, where do we start?” Jake asked.

 

Pete’s business brain started to kick in. He needed to find out which section heads were guilty of the ‘if it’s alien, it’s ours’ doctrine and kick them out. The police questioning should help with that.

 

He had to reinforce the original charter of ‘defending Earth against extraterrestrial threats’ and make sure it didn’t mean treating all extraterrestrials as hostile.

 

And, he had to find out what had occurred in the anomaly research area, and how five million Cybermen could vanish into thin air. He turned to Mickey and Jake.

 

“Who in S.O.U do you think would have known about the Cybermen on this floor. Who’s loyal to Yvonne Hartman and who thought that her adaptation of the Torchwood charter was wrong? Make a list and I’ll have a chat with them,” Pete said.

 

“Next, we need to find out who the poor sod is with the bits of Cyberman stuck in his head. We need to find out who he worked with, who is friends were.” Ideas were starting to flow now.

 

“Check his PC for research data, emails and text messages. I think Dr. Taylor is clean as he works primarily for UNIT. Show him anything you find, after you’ve made copies, just in case I’m wrong.”

 

Mickey grinned at Jake. “What about your girlfriend on reception? I bet she has the inside gossip on some of the people workin’ here.”

 

“Sarah? Good idea. I’ll go pay her a visit,” he said with a wicked smile and a wink.

 

“Good thinking. Mickey can you look into the research data? I’m going to find Dr. Taylor and see if he has any conclusions yet.” They split up and went to carry out their individual tasks.

 

 

+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

 

 

Malcolm Taylor was in the anomaly research area examining the equipment installed there. Mickey was sat at one of the computers, hacking into the data that had been collected.

 

“Oh, this is brilliant. Really brilliant work. The whole room has been constructed as an enormous temporo-spatial field generator,” he exclaimed. “They haven’t just been studying the anomaly; they’ve been trying to manipulate it.”

 

“Any idea who?” Pete asked him.

 

“Well, if it’s not me, and it isn’t, then it must be someone such as DeCaprio from M.I.T or Stansfield from Oxford,” he mused.

 

“Heads up Pete!” Mickey called from his position at the computer. “The dead guy, Toby Francis! His file says he was an Oxford graduate with a first in particle physics. Want to have a guess who his professor was?”

 

“Stansfield?” Pete asked.

 

“Yeah, and that’s not all. His section leader was a Jonathan Unwin, employed by Hartman herself in February last year. Not trustin’ her, I ran his photo through the facial recogniser and guess what. He ain’t Jonathan Unwin!”

 

“Who is he then?” Pete asked as he started to walk over with Malcolm.

 

“Dominic Holland! He was recruited by Cybus Industries to lead John Lumic’s special project that would benefit mankind. He disappeared after the battle of Battersea like a lot of other people. It was presumed that he was upgraded,” Mickey finished.

 

“Is that his work on there,” Malcolm asked.

 

“Yeah.” Mickey stood so that Malcolm could sit and use the computer.

 

Malcolm pushed his glasses onto the bridge of his nose and started reading. He made the occasional ‘mmm’ and ‘ahhh’ noise as he read through the data.

 

“Crikey!” Malcolm exclaimed. “I’m going to have to put a team together on this. I know the right people, I’ll see if they’re available.”

 

“What is it Malcolm? What have you found?” Pete asked.

 

“Well, they had six dormant Cybermen up here, restrained on the benches you found through there.” He pointed to the plastic sheeting.

 

“Holland activated them and started to work on them. What he didn’t realise though, is that when you activate one, you activate all. I think he was genuinely trying to help the people trapped inside, but I suspect Director Hartman had an ulterior motive. She wasn’t known for her philanthropy.” He had a little chuckle before continuing.

 

“Meanwhile, Francis studied well under his mentor. He correctly identified the nature of the anomaly, this data is fantastic. It looks like he’d moved to the next level, opening the anomaly and using it as a portal.” Malcolm read a few more pages.

 

“Ah, here we are then! Holland noticed that the Cybermen’s components were upgrading themselves, that’s something Lumic wanted building into them to make them future proof. It really is brilliant work. However, it looks like five million linked minds worked it out before he did. The six Cybermen must have deactivated their restraints, performed a partial upgrade on Francis, completed the dimension gate and then used it.”  

 

“What? five million Cybermen came through here?” Mickey asked.

 

Malcolm looked up and laughed. “No, don’t be daft, they didn’t need to. Once their internal components upgraded themselves, they could tune in to a harmonic frequency and ride the anomaly like a surfboard on a wave.”

 

“What, so it’s like.... I don’t know, a wormhole or somethin’,” Mickey asked.

 

“Er, interesting idea, but no, nothing like a wormhole. Wormholes theoretically connect two different places in the universe like using a hole punch on a folded piece of paper. According to this data, the anomaly connects the same place in two different universes, a hole punch on two pieces of paper,” Malcolm stated.

 

“WHAT?!” Mickey shouted. “Are you tellin’ me they’ve jumped into a parallel universe? That they’re on a parallel Earth? My Earth?”

 

Malcolm cleared his throat; he was a bit afraid of Mickey’s aggressive manner. “Well, er, they’re on their way, yes.”

 

Pete put a hand on Mickey’s shoulder to calm him down, and Malcolm visibly relaxed.

 

“Malcolm, can you explain to two non-physics people where the Cybermen are at this moment in time?” Pete asked him calmly.

 

“At the moment they are between universes. Remember the global temperature rise? That was the compensatory energy to balance the missing mass of five million Cybermen. It’s the laws of thermodynamics and entropy, but I won’t worry you with that,” he said seeing their confused faces.

 

“Basically, the increase in temperature tells us how much energy was used to move that much mass out of this universe. With a back of the envelope calculation, I would say they will be appearing in another universe in about three years, give or take a few months.”

 

“Shit!” said Mickey. “There goes my home neighbourhood.” He looked at Pete. “Rose and Jackie are there, all my friends! We’ve got to find a way to warn them.”

 

Pete looked at Malcolm. “Can you find out how the Cybermen did it and find a way for us to do it and get there before them?”

 

“That team I mentioned earlier, if I can get them together, we can do it,” he said confidently.

 

“Do it!” Pete told him. “Don’t worry about costs or funding, I’ll cover it.” He looked at Mickey as he said it.

  
“Thanks man,” Mickey said, relieved.

 


	5. Doomsday approaches

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> OK, this is the build up to Doomsday. I've tried to work everything out in the right order.  
> Mickey jumps back to his own world and Pete meets the Doctor again after three years.

 

** Chapter Five **

 

Two years and eight months later, Torchwood had been reformed by Pete Tyler. He had used a new broom and swept through the institute, getting rid of any remnant of the old regime.

 

Openness and transparency were Pete’s goal, as much as the official secrets act would allow. And even then he would tell the media that Torchwood had things he couldn’t tell them about.

 

Dr. Malcolm Taylor had been as good as his word and had assembled a ‘crack’ team of scientists. Particle physicist, Professor Charles DeCaprio from M.I.T took a sabbatical and flew over on the first Zepplin available. He knew this was Nobel Peace Prize winning work.

 

Theoretical physicist, Dr Roger Stansfield from Oxford also signed up straight away. Micro-engineering expert, Dr. Karl Jaeger from Technische Universitat Munchen, and micro-electronics guru Dr. Tadashi Yukomi from Tokyo Zokei University completed the team. Professor Stephen Hawking was often available on video conferencing.

 

Mickey and Jake were now experienced members of S.O.U, having a number of operations under their belts. All of the agents had been retained after the arrest of Yvonne Hartman, Captain McNab ran a tight ship and his personnel selection techniques had ensured that S.O.U was clean from the start.

 

Pete, Mickey and Jake were in a S.O.U people carrier which was pulling into a deserted warehouse building. They were his trusted lieutenants, they were the three musketeers. They were going to witness the completion of the dimensional transporter equipment, as the team had named it.

 

“Ah, Director Tyler, thank you for joining us, we are about to perform a full test of the device with an outward bound and return journey,” Malcolm told them with obvious excitement in his voice.

 

“Where is it then?” Mickey asked in anticipation.

 

“There?! On top of the briefcase,” Malcolm said as he pointed at a black briefcase on the floor.

 

“Wow! you got it down to the size of a briefcase! That’s amazing!” Jake exclaimed.

 

Karl Jaeger snorted a laugh. “The briefcase contains all the monitoring equipment to assess the safety of the transportation process,” he said in a cultured German accent. “The transporter is the disc bonded to the lid.”

 

The three musketeers gasped. The transporter was the diameter of a DVD, one centimetre deep with a domed yellow button on top.

 

“Well, here goes then. I suppose we should say something to commemorate this historic moment,” Malcolm suggested.

 

Jake had a smirk on his face. “I know, ‘one small jump for a briefcase, one giant jump for mankind.” Everyone burst into laughter.

 

“I think that captures the spirit of it,” Malcolm said and picked up a radio control handset, the sort you see with model cars. Everyone stood behind a bomb proof plexiglass screen as a wheeled robot advanced to the briefcase and a jointed arm lowered to press the button.

 

‘WHOP!” The suitcase disappeared. From everyone’s perspective, it looked like it accelerated away from them until it was too small to see. Pete, Mickey and Jake pitched forwards slightly as they lost their balance, feeling as though they were falling forwards.

 

Pete was grinning. “Well done Malcolm! Well done everyone!”

 

“Oh, let’s not be premature Director. We have to get it back in one piece first before we can call it a success,” Malcolm informed him.

 

“Ah, right. When’s it coming back then?” Pete asked.

 

Malcolm pushed his glasses back on the bridge of his nose. “The equipment will run an internal diagnostic, the sensors are recording temperature, air pressure and composition, humidity. A broadband radio scanner will record as much radio traffic as it can. Also a video camera is recording the immediate vicinity. The whole cycle takes about 90 seconds and then activates the dimensional transport for its return journey.”

 

As if on cue there was another ‘WHOP!’ and the briefcase reappeared on the warehouse floor. The team cheered and whooped, they hugged and high fived. Two years and eight months of pioneering work had come to fruition.

 

Malcolm ran over to the briefcase and clicked it open. He reached inside and pulled out a small perspex box. He walked back over to the group and proudly displayed a white mouse, which was in the middle of its cleaning regime.

 

“Hello Yvonne. How was your trip then?” Malcolm cooed at the mouse. The mouse looked up and sniffed the air in Malcolm’s direction.

 

Pete burst out laughing. “Yvonne? That’s priceless.”

 

 

+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

 

 

‘WHOP!’

 

Mickey’s ears popped with the difference in air pressure, as Pete, Chrissie and the network server room sped away from him at hundreds of miles an hour. There was a momentary wave of motion sickness before his brain caught up with the fact that he was still in the server room.

 

It was midnight and only one IT support technician would be on duty in the building, on the help desk in the IT office. Mickey looked at the server cabinet to his left and flipped the door catch. He looked down the banks of servers until he found the one he wanted. He took the network cable from the laptop he was holding and plugged it into the spare port.

 

IT in Pete’s Torchwood had set up the laptop to run a batch file that would perform all the tasks required. It immediately started downloading as much data as it could from this Torchwood’s network.

 

It simultaneously uploaded a false identity for Mickey and a secondment request for Samuel Jackson from Torchwood Two in Glasgow to join Torchwood One to work on a special project.

 

Mickey had pointed out that Samuel Jackson was a famous actor in this world, but the HR psychologist had said that would help with the deception if he smiled and said ‘no relation’.

 

He watched the progress bars creep along the windows and change from red to green. The batch file completed its task by erasing any record of the laptops connection. A window popped up, ‘it is now safe to disconnect your computer’ it told him.

 

He unplugged the network cable, closed the laptop and pressed the yellow button hanging around his neck. He closed his eyes this time and heard the ‘WHOP!’ When he opened his eyes, he was looking at the grinning face of Pete Tyler.

 

“Did everything go okay?” Pete asked him.

 

“Yeah, sweet as a nut,” he replied. “Just got to remember to keep your eyes closed.”

 

Chrissie stepped forwards and took the laptop. “I’ll get this down to IT and start downloading the data. By the start of shift, we should be able to see if the other Torchwood know the Cybermen are coming, and what they’re doing about it.”

 

They were in for a shock.

 

 

+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

 

 

S.O.U Technical Support found out about the big, spherical black hole of nothingness in a secure room. They surmised that the Cybermen would emerge from the nothingness.

 

In the early hours of the morning, Mickey jumped into the sphere room and secured a particle rifle under a console. Now everything was in place, it was time for Mickey to become Samuel Jackson (no relation).

 

It was decided that Mickey would jump in and out of the toilets in the local underground station. He would be out of view of any security cameras and could walk into Torchwood reception instead of mysteriously appearing.

 

“Good morning,” Mickey said to the receptionist.

 

“Good morning sir. Welcome to Torchwood. How may I help you?” she said in a well practiced manner.

 

“Samuel Jackson.” He waggled his eyebrows. “No relation. I’m on temporary transfer from Torchwood Two.”

 

The receptionist tapped some keys. “Ah yes, here it is. Do you have your ID?” she asked him.

 

Mickey took the lanyard from around his neck and handed it over. She looked closely at the ID and then at Mickey. He was holding his breath. She smiled and wiped the ID over a metallic disc on the desk.

 

“There you are Mr. Jackson, your ID will work here now. You will need Dr. Singh’s office on the 21st floor. The lifts are just over there.”

 

“Do you have a cloakroom where I can leave my coat?” Mickey asked. He didn’t want to wander around Torchwood with a dimension transportation button in his pocket; the sensors might pick it up.

 

“Of course, I’ll unlock the door here and you can hang it up.” She pressed a button on the back wall and the door next to reception went ‘click’.

 

Mickey then made his way to see the renowned Dr. Rajesh Singh.

 

Mickey spent the day with Dr. Singh as he found his way around a building he already knew. Rajesh was a really nice man. He was very clever and very likeable. Mickey took to him straight away; they had a similar sense of humour.

 

Mickey was amazed at how many people he recognised from the ‘other’ Torchwood. He continually had to stop himself from saying hello by name to the ‘other’ staff.

 

At the end of his shift, he collected his coat from reception and made his way back to the toilets in the station.

 

‘WHOP!’

 

Mickey reported back to Pete and gave him a run down on the days events before they headed back home to the mansion.

 

 

+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

 

 

The next day, Pete was in his office catching up on reports from section heads when his mobile phone rang out. The display said it was Mickey, which was a bit strange because he was in the ‘other’ Torchwood.

 

“Mickey? Is that you?” he asked hesitantly.

 

“Pete! I’ve just jumped into one of the toilets. Get the S.O.U team ready, the Doctor and Rose have just arrived, they’re in ‘your’ office. I’m going back over now. See ya later.” The phone hung up and Pete immediately picked up the internal phone for S.O.U.

 

“Jake! get your team up here now, fully tooled up. We are go! I repeat, We-are-go!”

 

Minutes later, Jake, Chrissie and the rest of the black uniformed Special Operations agents ran out of the lifts, along the corridor and into Pete’s office.

 

“Okay people, this is it. The Doctor has arrived in the parallel Torchwood and is in this office. Their Torchwood is still ‘dirty’ so expect some opposition. Supply backup to the Doctor and Rose Tyler and get them back here! Any questions?” Pete asked, looking at each face in the room. No one spoke and he smiled. “Right then, let’s get this show on the road. Jake, I’ll be in the ‘lever’ room.”

 

The agents in front of him zoomed away at speed and disappeared. He left the office and walked across the corridor to the now dismantled ‘lever’ room.

 

Pete walked around the dismantled room while he waited. When Malcolm told him that the buttons would work independently without the anomaly manipulator, he had instructed the technicians to dismantle the room. There was no way the Cybermen were coming back though there.

 

He rubbed his hand over his face and leant against a wall in the shadows. So, after nearly three years, the day had arrived. Judgement day. If the Doctor could help that world, then fine, but there was no way that those bastards were coming back here. He had sworn on Jackie’s memory.

 

“WHOP!”

 

“Parallel Earth, parallel Torchwood. Except we found out what the Institute was doing and the People's Republic took control.” It was Jake, he was talking to someone.

 

“I've got to get back. Rose is in danger, and her mother.” It was the Doctor, he recognised that voice.

 

“That'd be Jackie. My wife in a parallel universe. And as for you, Doctor, at least this time I know who you are,” Pete told him. He had waited over three years to make his acquaintance again.

 

“Right, yes, fine, hooray. But I've got to get back, right now.” The Doctor was getting agitated.

 

“No!” Pete exclaimed. “You're not in charge here. This is our world, not yours. And you're going to listen for once. When you left this world, you warned us there'd be more Cybermen. So we sealed them inside the factories.”

 

“Except people argued. Said they were living. We should help them,” Jake added.

 

“And the debate went on. But all that time, the Cybermen made plans. Infiltrated this version of Torchwood, mapped themselves onto your world, and then vanished,” Pete continued.

 

“When was this?” the Doctor asked him.

 

“Three years ago,” Pete replied.

 

The Doctor thought about this. “It's taken them three years to cross the void, but we can pop to and fro in a second. Must be the sheer mass of five million Cybermen crossing all at once.”

 

“Yeah, Mickey said you'd rattle off that sort of stuff,” Pete laughed.

 

‘Of course, Mickey was here’ the Doctor thought to himself. “Oh, where is the Mickey boy?”

 

“He went ahead first. Any chance to go and find Miss Rose Tyler.” The Doctor relaxed a little. If Mickey was with Rose then she had some backup.

 

“She's your daughter. You do know that? Did Mickey explain?” he asked Pete.

 

Pete replied sharply. “She's not mine. She's the child of a dead man. Look at it, a world of peace. They're calling this The Golden Age.”

 

The Doctor remembered that the President had been killed when he decided not to take his advice. “Who's the President now?”

 

“A woman called Harriet Jones,” he told him

 

“Oof. I'd keep an eye on her.” He remembered the Sycorax and how she had destroyed them back in his universe.

 

Pete continued his narrative. “But it's a lie. Temperatures have risen by two degrees in the past six months. The ice caps are melting. They're saying all this is going to be flooded. That's not just global warming, is it?”

 

“No,” the Doctor replied quietly.

 

Pete remembered what Malcolm had said, something about thermodynamics. “It's the breach.”

 

The Doctor knew more about thermodynamics and entropy than Malcolm could ever imagine. “I've been trying to tell you. Travel between parallel worlds is impossible. Then the Daleks break down the walls with a Sphere.”

 

“Daleks?” ‘Who the hell are the Daleks’ Pete asked himself.

 

The Doctor was in lecture mode. “Then the Cybermen travelled across, then you lot. Those discs. Every time you jump from one reality to another, you rip a hole in the universe. This planet is starting to boil. Keep going and both worlds will fall into the Void.”

 

“But you can stop it? The famous Doctor. You can seal the breach?” Pete asked him hopefully.

 

The Doctor didn’t like the way this conversation was going. “Leaving five million Cybermen stranded on my Earth.”

 

“That's your problem. I'm protecting this world, and this world only.” Pete had thought about this, and he didn’t like it, but it was one of those choices that had to be made. He would be damned if he did and damned if he didn’t.

 

The Doctor heard the self loathing in Pete’s voice. Self loathing was an old companion of his. He had made decisions like this too many times before.

 

“Hmm. Pete Tyler. I knew you when you were dead. Now here you are, fighting the fight alone. There is a chance, back on my world; Jackie Tyler might still be alive.”

 

“My wife died.” After three years he still felt the pain and guilt of Jackie’s death.

 

“Her husband died. Good match,” the Doctor said without humour.

 

“There's more important things at stake. Doctor, help us.” Pete wanted to hand over the responsibility for this decision to someone else.

 

“What, close the breach? Stop the Cybermen? Defeat the Daleks? Do you believe I can do that?” If Pete wanted him to do this, he would have to help.

 

Over three years, Pete had heard all of Mickey’s stories about the Doctor. He trusted Mickey, and Mickey in turn trusted the Doctor.

 

“Yes,” he said simply.

 

The Doctor accepted the responsibility from Pete. “Maybe that's all I need. Off we go, then!”

 

 

+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

 

 

“WHOP!”

 

Suddenly the lever room was reassembled; they were back in the Doctor’s world.

 

“First of all, I need to make a phone call. You don't mind?” Jackie had been taken for upgrading. He had no idea if she was still alive, he hoped against hope.

 

Jake organised the S.O.U agents. “You two, guard the door.”

 

 **“** Oh, my God, help me!” It was Jackie! By the rings of Saturn, she was alive!

 

“Jackie, you're alive! Listen....” he started to say, but Jackie’s mouth was in gear.

 

“They tried to download me but I ran away!” she cried.

 

“Shush. Listen, tell me. Where are you?” He softened his voice to try and calm her down.

 

“I don't know. Staircase.”

 

“Yeah, which one? Is there any sort of sign? Anything to identify it?” he asked her.

 

“Yes, a fire extinguisher.” As soon as she said it she realised how blonde that was.

 

“Yeah, that helps!” ‘That wasn’t just blonde, that was Jackie blonde, roots ‘n’ all’ he thought to himself.

 

“Oh, wait a minute. It says N3.”

 

That’s better, now she’s being Rose’s mother. “North corner, staircase three. Just keep low, we're trying our best.”

 

“No, don't leave me.” He could hear the fear in her voice, but the quicker he did this the quicker she would be safe.

 

“I've got to go. I'm sorry.” He looked at Pete and Jake who had been listening to his side of the conversation.

 

“Jacqueline Andrea Suzette Tyler,” he said in explanation.

 

“She's not my wife.” Pete was now trying to convince himself of that as well as the Doctor.

 

“I was at the wedding. You got her name wrong. Now then, Jakey boy, if I can open up the bonding chamber on this thing, it'll work on polycarbite.” He took his sonic screwdriver out of his pocket.

 

“What's polycarbite?” Jake asked him.

  
“Skin of a Dalek.”

 


	6. The Battle of Canary Wharf

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Well, here it is, Doomsday seen from Pete's world.  
> P.S. I've produced a little video on you tube called "The Doctor and Rose. The Rain After Doomsday". I hope you like it.

 

** Chapter Six **

 

 

Pete couldn’t believe the bravado of this alien called the Doctor. He had actually convinced the Cybermen to work with him against these things called the Daleks! How bad were these Daleks if he needed the help of the Cybermen?

 

He was waiting with some of the Cybermen behind a door leading to the sphere chamber that contained the void ship. Jake was behind another door on the other side of the chamber with two of the S.O.U troops. The Doctor had told them to wait until the doors blew out.

 

Pete could hear muffled voices of people and screeching mechanical voices of what he assumed were Daleks.

 

Suddenly the doors flew off their hinges in an explosion. ‘He certainly had style’ Pete thought to himself. When the dust and smoke cleared, Pete could see four oversized pepper pots and a bell shaped container.

 

 **“Delete! Delete! Delete! Delete!”** the Cybermen shouted as they entered the corridor.

 

Jake and the other agents stepped forwards firing their automatic rifles at the Daleks. Their polycarbite plating started to ripple under the effect of the particle rifles used by the Cybermen.

 

**“Alert. Casing impaired. Casing impaired.”**

 

“ROSE, GET OUT!” the Doctor shouted at her.

 

 **“Fire power insufficient! Fire power insufficient!”** Dalek Sek starts to screech.

 

Pete saw Rose stumble on the remains of the doors and stooped down to help her up. As he touched her, she looked up into his eyes and he got that feeling he had last time they met, that she was somehow familiar. He shrugged the feeling off.

 

“Come on,” he said kindly as she got to her feet. Everyone crouched down and ran for the exit.

 

While this was going on Mickey made a dive for his particle rifle, the Daleks and Cybermen started kicking off.

 

**“Daleks will be deleted. Delete. Delete.”**

 

Rose spotted Mickey on the floor. “Mickey, come on!” Mickey started to get up as the Daleks change tactics.

 

 **“Adapt to weaponry,”** Dalek Jast called out. The Daleks started to reconfigure their armaments.

 

 **“Fire power restored!”** Dalek Sek announced as he blasted a Cyberman.

 

As the Cyberman staggered and fell, Mickey was jostled and he put his hand out to steady himself, right onto the bell shaped container the Daleks had called the Genesis Ark. He joined Jake and they headed for the emergency blast door where the Doctor, Rose and Pete were waiting.

 

The Ark started to steam.

 

When everyone was safely through, the Doctor closed the blast door. He could hear Dalek Sek declare, **“Cybermen primary target.”**

 

“I just fell, I didn't mean it!” Mickey apologised.

 

The Doctor tried to reassure him. “Mickey, without us, they'd have opened it by force. To do that, they'd have blown up the sun. You've done us a favour. Now, run!”

 

“Jake, check the stairwell. The rest of you, come on,” the Doctor commanded. They made their way quickly down the service corridor and turned the corner. There in front of them were two Cybermen with their backs to them, threatening someone with an upgrade.

 

A woman was pleading with them. “No, but you can't. Please.”

 

That voice! Pete’s breath caught in his chest. That voice, it had been three years since he’d heard that voice. Pete pulled the trigger on the particle rifle and the Cybermen exploded. When the smoke cleared, Pete and Jackie were left staring at each other.

 

Jackie stood in disbelief, her mouth open. “Pete?”

 

“Hello, Jacks,” he said simply. The shock wasn’t so bad for him, as the Doctor had already told him that Jackie existed in his world.

 

Jackie looked at the Doctor. “I said there were ghosts, but that's not fair. Why him?”

 

“I'm not a ghost,” he said quietly, calmly, while his insides did somersaults.

 

“But you're dead. You died twenty years ago, Pete.” She was trying to rationalise what she was seeing.

 

Sympathetically, the Doctor tried to explain. “It's Pete from a different universe. There are parallel worlds, Jackie. Every single decision we make creates a parallel existence, a different dimension where....”

 

Jackie rolled her eyes. “Oh, you can shut up,” she told him. She looked back at Pete. “Oh, you look old.”

 

Pete gave her a lopsided smile. “You don't.”

 

“How can you be standing there?” She was beginning to hope that it was true.

 

“I just got lucky. Lived my life,” he started and then looked concerned. “You were left on your own. You didn't marry again, or?...”

 

“There was never anyone else. Twenty years, though. Look at me. I never left that flat. Did nothing with myself.” She felt self loathing rise.

 

Pete nodded towards Rose. “You brought her up. Rose Tyler. That's not bad.”

 

Jackie nodded. “Yeah.”

 

“In my world, it worked. All those daft little plans of mine, they worked. Made me rich,” he told her.

 

“I don't care about that,” she told him and then thought about it. “How rich?”

 

“Very,” he replied with a smile.

 

“I don't care about that,” she said again. “How very?”

 

“Thing is though, Jacks, you're not my wife.” He was trying to convince himself of that statement. “I'm sorry, but you're not. I mean, we both. You know, it's just sort of....” Ah what the hell! If it looks like a wolf, smells like a wolf and howls like a wolf. “Oh, come here.”

 

Pete put down the gun and they ran into each other arms. Jackie wrapped her legs around his waist as they hugged an impossible hug. Rose looked on, happy for her Mum, but hurt and confused. He could accept her Mum as his wife, but he couldn’t accept her as his daughter, and she wanted him to so much.

 

 

+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

 

 

The four Daleks, Thay, Sek, Jast and Caan, known to the Doctor as ‘The Cult of Skaro’, were moving the Genesis Ark into the Torchwood warehouse where all the captured alien tech was stored. Cybermen entered through a door on the far side and started a fire fight. Members of this worlds Special Operations took up positions and fired automatic weapons at both sides. They may as well been using pea shooters for all the good it did.

 

The Doctor and his rag-tag group stumbled into the warehouse by mistake and took cover behind some of the crates. He spotted the magnaclamps in one of the crates that he’d seen earlier and the germ of an idea started to form in his brilliant mind. Dodging the fire fight, the Doctor grabbed the magnaclamps and scurried back to the door.

 

The Cult of Skaro, with superior weapons to the Cybermen quickly eliminated the opposition in the warehouse. Dalek Sek activated the sliding warehouse roof and it started to retract. The Doctor and the rest of them watched the four Daleks levitated with the Ark out of the building.

 

“What're they doing? Why do they need to get outside?” Rose asked the Doctor.

 

The Doctor was wondering that himself. “Time Lord science. What Time Lord science? What is it?” He moved back along the corridor and everyone followed.

 

“We've got to see what it's doing. We've got to go back up. Come on! All of you. Top floor!” he commanded.

 

“That's forty five floors up! Believe me, I've done them all,” Jackie told him. The look on her face told him she was going nowhere.

 

“We could always take the lift,” Jake said with a smile on his face.

 

The lift went ‘ding’ as it reached the top floor and everyone ran out to find an office with a window overlooking the warehouse roof.

 

“In here!” Pete called out. The Doctor ran to the window to see the front of the Ark had opened and was starting to rotate. Daleks were being shot out in all directions.

 

The Doctor understood now. “Time Lord science. It's bigger on the inside.”

 

“Did the Time Lords put those Daleks in there? What for?” Mickey asked.

 

“It's a prison ship.” This was bad, very bad.

 

“How many Daleks?” Rose asked him.

 

He didn’t know. “Millions,” he guessed.

 

Red beams of energy cut the sky from the Cybermen below, and blue beams were returned from the Daleks above. Anyone on the street was collateral damage and didn’t stand a chance.

 

Pete looked out at the scene of impending doom. “I'm sorry, but you've had it. This world's going to crash and burn. There's nothing we can do. We're going home.”

 

Pete took a yellow button from one of his troops and handed it to Jackie. He nodded to his S.O.U agents and they moved out to jump back to their own world.

 

“Jacks, take this. You're coming with us,” he told her, it wasn’t a request.

 

“But they're destroying the city.” Jackie was loathed to go while her hometown was being trashed.

 

Pete rolled his eyes. “I'd forgotten you could argue. It's not just London, it's the whole world. But there's another world just waiting for you, Jacks. And it's safe as long as the Doctor closes the breach.” He was putting his faith in this extraordinary man. “Doctor?”

 

The Doctor turned around from watching the battle outside and he was wearing those red and green 3D cardboard spectacles. Rose noticed he’d got that slightly scary, Time Lord smile on his face.

 

“Oh, I'm ready. I've got the equipment right here. Thank you, Torchwood.”

 

He moved into the lever room and tapped a computer keyboard.

 

“Slam it down and close off both universes,” he said manically.

 

A female computer voice announced that it was rebooting the systems.

 

Rose was worried now “But we can't just leave. What about the Daleks? And the Cybermen?”

 

“They're part of the problem, and that makes them part of the solution,” he said cryptically. “Oh yes! Well? Isn't anyone going to ask what is it with the glasses?”

 

Rose grinned, she love it when he was like this. “What is it with the glasses?”

 

“I can see, that's what,” he laughed. “Because we've got two separate worlds, but in between the two separate worlds, we've got the Void. That's where the Daleks were hiding. And the Cybermen travelled through the Void to get here. And you lot, one world to another, via the Void. Oh, I like that. Via the Void. Look.”

 

He took the glasses off and handed them to Rose. She put them on and looked at the Doctor.

 

“I've been through it. Do you see?” he asked her. He was doing a little dance in front of her.

 

She could see a cloud of particles around his body like a swarm tiny insects trying to keep up with him. She put her hand out to disturb the cloud and noticed a cloud around her hand as well.

 

The computer announced that the reboot would be in in three minutes.

 

“What is it?” Rose asked him, examining the cloud around her hands.

 

“Void stuff.”

 

“Like er, background radiation?” she suggested.

 

“That's it. Look at the others. And the only one who hasn't been through the Void, your mother. First time she's looked normal all in her life,” he said cheekily.

 

“Oi!” He was asking for a slap, and she was the one to give it.

 

“But the Daleks lived inside the Void. They're bristling with it. Cybermen, all of them. I just open the Void and reverse. The Void stuff gets sucked back inside,” he explained.

 

“Pulling them all in!”

 

“Pulling them all in!” he agreed.

 

Mickey was looking a bit puzzled. “Sorry, what's the Void?”

 

“The dead space. Some people call it Hell,” he explained.

 

“So you're sending the Daleks and Cybermen to Hell.” He looked at Jake and smiled. “Man, I told you he was good.”

 

Something occurred to Rose “But it's like you said. We've all got Void stuff. Me too, because we went to that parallel world. We're all contaminated. We'll get pulled in.”

 

He suddenly became very serious. “That's why you've got to go.... back to Pete's world. Hey, we should call it that. Pete's World. I'm opening the Void, but only on this side. You'll be safe on that side.”

 

The computer announced the reboot would be in two minutes.

 

“And then you close it, for good?” Pete insisted.

 

“The breach itself is soaked in Void stuff. In the end it'll close itself. And that's it. Kaput.” That was his plan, in a nutshell.

 

Rose was beginning to sense there was something he wasn’t telling her. “But you stay on this side?”

 

“But you'll get pulled in,” Mickey said. He hadn’t seen the problem that Rose was worried about.

 

“That's why I got these.” He held up the Magnaclamps. “I'll just have to hold on tight. I've been doing it all my life.”

 

“I'm supposed to go?” she asked disbelievingly.

 

“Yeah.” It was obvious wasn’t it?

 

“To another world, and then it gets sealed off?” This time she was incredulous.

 

“Yeah.” Surely she understood that her safety was paramount. What was her problem?

 

“Forever! That's not going to happen!” She was bordering on furious that he’d even suggested it.

 

Jackie on the other hand was starting to feel a real affection for the man who would send away someone he obviously cared a great deal about so that she would be safe.

 

Just then, the whole building was rocked by an explosion.

 

“We haven't got time to argue,” Pete shouted. “The plan works. We're going. You too. All of us.”

 

Rose was adamant. “No, I'm not leaving here.”

 

“I'm not going without her.” Jackie was adamant too.

 

Pete rolled his eyes. “Oh, my God. We're going!” Why did women have to be so stubborn.

 

Jackie gave Pete an icy stare. “I've had twenty years without you, so button it. I'm not leaving her.”

 

Rose didn’t want her Mum to give up a chance of happiness. “You've got to.” She had her happiness with the Doctor. Why couldn’t she understand that.

 

Jackie folded her arms in defiance. “Well, that's tough.”

 

“Mum,” she pleaded.

 

The computer reminded them that they had one minute before the reboot. The clock was ticking.

 

Rose tried to get her Mum to understand. “I've had a life with you for nineteen years, but then I met the Doctor, and all the things I've seen him do for me, for you, for all of us. For the whole stupid planet and every planet out there. He does it alone, mum. But not anymore, because now he's got me.”

 

While Rose was pleading her case, she didn’t see the Doctor approaching behind her. He placed a button over her neck.

 

“What're you....?” Before she could complete the question, Pete pressed his button which activated all of the dimension transporters.

 

‘WHOP!’

 

The Doctor disappeared and they were standing in the dismantled lever room of Pete’s world. No! Not again! It was Satellite 5 all over again.

 

“Oh no, you don't. He's not doing that to me again,” Rose pushed the yellow button again causing her to disappear with a ‘WHOP!’

 

Jackie cried out. “But I've got to go back!” she told Pete.

 

“The Doctor said every time we use one of these, it damages the whole world. Now that's it!” He took the button off Jackie.

 

She looked at him, imploring. “She's your daughter!”

 

“She's your daughter, not mine. That's an order.” Pete replied harshly. He had to make her realise that Rose had made her choice. He took Mickey’s button as well.

 

“Mickey, tell him. Tell him, Mickey. Mickey!” She wanted Rose back, but she also wanted Pete. It was Hobson’s choice, a catch 22 and she didn’t know what to do.

 

Pete softened and grabbed her into a hug. “Jackie, I know it’s hard to lose someone, but it’s her choice. She wants to be with him, and I think she needs to be with him. It gives her life purpose.” Tears were trickling down her cheeks.

 

“But she’s my daughter Pete.... She’s our daughter!” She saw the hesitation in his face. “She is! She’s got your genes in her. Every time she smiles, I see your smile. She’s got your sense of humour, and we’ll never see her again!” Jackie was sobbing now and Pete was welling up seeing her so distressed.

 

Unexpectedly, Jackie’s mobile rang. She took it out of her pocket and answered the call.

 

“JACQUELINE, ANDREA, SUZETTE TYLER! FOR ONCE IN YOUR LIFE JUST SHUT UP AND HAND THE PHONE TO PETE!” the Doctor shouted down the phone. Jackie was so shocked, she was speechless. She handed the phone to Pete.

 

“Hello?” Pete said with a questioning voice.

 

“Pete, I don’t have much time. That’s a bit silly really when you have a time machine. Sorry, I’m rambling, I’m nervous. Switch the phone to speakerphone.” Pete looked at the phone and found the speakerphone button.

 

“Okay, it’s on speakerphone,” he told the Doctor.

 

“Right! Rose is in danger!” Jackie gasped and was about to ask what, when and how, when he continued. “I’m in the TARDIS and it’s routing this call through the cracks in the universe. I’ve tapped into the surveillance cameras and I’m watching myself and Rose open the breach. Are you in the white room with the levers?” he asked them.

 

“Yes, I’m looking at the far wall now.” Pete replied.

 

“Good! Rose is at the lever to your right, hanging onto a magnaclamp. In a moment she will let go and re-lock the lever. I need you to hand the phone to Mickey and walk to the right hand corner of the room with one of those yellow buttons.” Pete handed over the phone and walked to the corner.

 

“Okay, I’M HERE!” he shouted from the corner, putting one button around his neck and holding the other in his hand.

 

“Step forward about five paces and brace yourself. Rose is going to lose her grip and I need you to jump in, catch her and jump out before she’s pulled into the breach. You’ve only got a small amount of void stuff on you, so you’ll have some inertia before you feel the pull. Get ready, she’s on the lever now, she’s losing her grip. Three, two, one, JUMP!”

 

‘WHOP!’

 

Pete pressed the button and disappeared. Jackie gasped and Mickey wrapped an arm around her shoulder for comfort.

 

‘WHOP!’

 

Moments later, that seemed like hours, Pete reappeared and fell backwards with Rose in his arms.

 

Jackie cried out with relief and shouted down the phone that she was safe, but it was disconnected.

 

Rose rolled onto her feet and grabbed the yellow button and thumped it. When it didn’t work she thumped it again and again. Pete got to his feet and ran to Jackie and enveloped her in a hug.

 

Rose threw the button down in disgust and started pounding on the wall with her hands.

 

“Take me back! Take me back! Take - me - baaaack.” She was crying now, tears rolling down her cheeks.

 

Pete looked down at the button in his hands. “It's stopped working. He did it. He closed the breach.”

 

“NOooo!” Rose cried.

 

Jackie, Pete and Mickey stood at the end of the room speechless. Rose was inconsolable. She suddenly stop crying and put her ear to the wall as though she could hear him. She caressed the wall as though she could feel him. She turned her back to the wall and slid down into a crumpled heap on the floor, her body shaking with sobs.

 

“Pete, why don’t you take Jackie down to the reception,” Mickey suggested, his voice full of emotion. “Go on. I’ll stay with her. I’ll bring her down when she’s all cried out.”

  
Pete put his arm around Jackie’s shoulders and guided her out the door.

 


	7. Stranded!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pete comes to terms with the fact that he has a new, old wife and a new daughter.  
> Rose realises that she is trapped in this world without the Doctor.

 

** Chapter Seven **

 

 

** The day of Rose's arrival in Pete's world **

 

 

The black Torchwood people carrier with tinted windows pulled up in front of Tyler mansion. Pete realised while waiting in the reception area that the sudden appearance of his dead wife and a mysterious young woman might give rise to some awkward questions.

 

By the time Mickey had finally coaxed Rose into a lift and arrived in the lobby, Pete had already signed for a vehicle at the reception desk and taken the keys. He ushered them back into the lift and went down to the basement car park.

 

During the journey to the mansion, there was an awkward, heavy silence in the car. Jackie was in the passenger seat and would look across and smile at Pete when she caught his eye. She would then look in the back with concern at her devastated daughter.

 

She was curled up on the back seat with her head buried in Mickey’s shoulder. Mickey had a protective arm around her, his other hand gently stroking her hair. There were intermittent sobs and sniffs coming from her hidden face.

 

Pete got out of the car first and made his way up the steps to the door. Jackie got out and opened the rear door. Mickey got out and gently lifted Rose out of the car and carried her towards the house.

 

“I can walk y’know,” she whispered in his ear.

 

“Hey, don’t turn down a free ride,” he replied, trying to lighten the depressing mood.

 

Jackie noticed how muscular Mikey had become since working at Torchwood. He carried Rose up the steps with ease. Pete was waiting at the top of the steps with another man in a ‘sharp’ suit and immaculate hair.

 

“Mrs. Tyler! What a surprise. We were told you had been killed in the Cybermen attacks. It appears the report of your death was an exaggeration,” the man said, quoting Mark Twain.

 

“Jacks, this is Alistair, the house manager. You’ll get used to him,” Pete said with a lopsided smile.

 

“What? You’ve got a butler?” she asked Pete.

 

“Oh no ma’am, I don’t buttle, I manage,” Alistair said with a short nod.

 

Jackie looked him up and down. “Well, can you manage a cup of tea, ‘cause I’m gaspin’.”

 

Alistair had a smirk on his face. Oh he was going to enjoy the banter with the new Mrs. Tyler, whoever she was. “I will instruct the kitchen staff to put a pot on straight away,” he told her and went inside.

 

Pete called after him. “Oh, and Alistair, ask Jenny to make up a room for.... our daughter..”

 

Alistair turned in surprise with an eyebrow raised and saw Mickey carrying Rose in behind Pete and Jackie.

 

“A family reunion and a resurrection all in the same day. How wonderful.” Pete gave him an icy stare that said ‘knock it off, now is not the time’.

 

“Yes sir, of course.” With that he turned and resumed his journey to the kitchen.

 

Pete took them into the drawing room and Mickey laid Rose on a comfy sofa. He gathered up a couple of cushions and put them under her head and kneeled down in front of her. She had ‘panda’ eyes from all the crying and running mascara.

 

“You okay?” he whispered, gently stroking a stray wisp of hair behind her ear.

 

She nodded and made a ‘uh-uh’ sound. She blew her nose on a tissue and sniffed.

 

“Thanks Mickey,” she whispered. She looked like a small frightened animal when she looked at him with her brown, bloodshot eyes. It evoked his protective response and he just wanted to look after her.

 

Pete took Jackie by the elbow and gently guided her to one of  the large windows overlooking the gardens. Jackie was looking back at Rose on the sofa, she looked so fragile and defenceless.

 

“Jacks, I don’t think we’re going to be in her good books for a while, having snatched her away from the Doctor,” he told her quietly.

 

“But you saved her life!” Jackie protested.

 

“I know, I know, but she won’t see it like that, so for now it’s probably best if we let Mickey comfort her until she’s ready to let us in.” He searched her big, blue, gorgeous eyes, looking for agreement.

 

Jackie looked over to the sofa and saw Mickey talking to her, quietly telling her that he was there for her if she needed him. He was a good lad, it was a shame the Doctor had come along and.... She looked back at Pete.

 

“Yeah, you’re probably right.” Pete leant forwards and gently kissed her on the lips. Oh God he had missed her.

 

“I’ve got to go to my office down the hall and make some phone calls. I’ll get Alice to come over, she’s a bereavement councillor. I’ve also got to call security and get them working on a cover story for you and Rose.” He squeezed her hand and  walked out of the room.

 

Left on her own, Jackie started to appreciate her surroundings. Looking outside, she could see manicured lawns and immaculate flower beds. Turning to look around the room, it was tastefully decorated in keeping with the style of the house.

 

The door opened and a young lady entered pushing a small, ornate trolley with a porcelain teapot, cups, saucers, a small jug of milk and a sugar bowl. Underneath were a selection of biscuits on plates.

 

“Would you like me to pour Mrs. Tyler or would you prefer to pour yourself?” she asked.

 

“No, that’s alright love, we’ll take care of it. Thank you.”

 

“Very well ma’am, enjoy your tea.” She gave them a friendly smile and left the room.

 

“Blimey! This is goin’ to take a bit of gettin’, used to!” she said to no one in particular as she started to pour the tea.

 

Mickey looked over at her and grinned. “Yeah, who’d have thought when you got out of bed this mornin’ that you’d be livin’ the high life by tea time?”

 

Rose sat up as Jackie offered her a cup and as she looked up, Jackie could see the haunted look in her eyes. “Thanks Mum,” she said quietly. Jackie just smiled back at her, if she had spoken she would have lost her composure.

 

“Ooh, this is lovely tea,” Jackie commented. “Anyone want a biscuit?” She offered a plate of digestives. Mickey took one and bit it in half. Rose shook her head and stroked the stray bit of hair back behind her ear again.

 

“No thanks Mum, I’m not hungry at the moment. In fact I feel a bit sick,” she told her. Jackie put her cup on the low table in front of the sofa and took Rose’s from her. She held her arms out for her daughter, her head tilted to one side. Rose slowly and a little reluctantly shuffled into her mother’s comforting embrace and started to sob.

 

Jackie stroked her hair and patted her back, slowly rocking her hurting daughter, just as she had done for the last 20 years. She shushed and cooed in her ear as tears trickled down her own cheeks, and silently gave thanks to the alien who had saved her daughter and given her back to her.

 

 

+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

 

 

“Switzerland!” The intelligence operative on the phone was telling him. “Rose was finishing her studies at Institut Le Rosey in Switzerland. Being a school to the rich and famous, privacy and discretion are expected from their clients.”

 

“Oh that’s good,” Pete told him.

 

“With a funding donation to the college, we can put a false set of school reports and attendance records in place for the more determined reporters. We’ll say that Jackie escaped the attack on the mansion and you told her to go and stay with Rose until she finished college,” he finished.

 

“Okay, that gives me something to work with. Dot the ‘i’s and cross the ‘t’s and let me have the finished product A.S.A.P. Thanks for that Josh, I owe you a pint,” Pete told him.

 

He put down the phone and headed back down the hallway towards the drawing room. Mickey was just closing the door quietly as Pete approached. He looked at Pete and smiled.

 

“They’re havin’ a good old cry in there, I thought I’d leave ‘em to it. Mendin’ fences an’ all that,” he said quietly.

 

“Well, at least that’s a step in the right direction.” Pete rubbed his hand over his face. “And how do I build fences Mickey? There’s a woman in there who’s my dead wife, and another who thinks she’s my daughter!”

 

Mickey laughed. “Welcome to the Doctor’s world of weirdness. This sort of shit used to happen all the time.” He saw the anguish on Pete’s face.

 

“Look, as I see it, you’re like one of those men who have someone turn up on their doorstep one day claiming to be their kid. Y’know, a one night stand and then no contact for 20 years. Only in this case, it wasn’t a one night stand, it was a 20 year marriage.”

 

“But that 20 year marriage was with another woman,” he stated.

 

“Not from where I’m standin’. That woman in there is Jackie Tyler. Okay, she might have some different memories, but it’s still Jackie. Remember that sweet little old lady you took a shine to and invited into your house, that’s my Gran. Different memories maybe, but still the amazing woman that made me who I am.”

 

Mickey took a breath and his voice took on an air of authority. “And that precious young woman who’s just had her heart ripped out of a different universe? She - is - your - daughter. Insist on a DNA test if you need to, but I can tell you now that it will show that you are her father, not some dead guy in another world, you, and she needs you, especially now.”

 

Mickey leaned in close, his voice low, almost menacing. “So you had better do right by her Pete, ‘cause she’s my best mate in this world, and if you hurt her....” He let the end of the sentence unfinished. He knew Pete understood how he felt about Rose.

 

The two men stood toe-to-toe staring at each other. Pete’s face softened as he realised that everything Mickey had said was true. Weird and mind boggling, but ultimately true. He opened the door to the drawing room and went inside.

 

Just inside the door was an ornate button which he pressed to call Alistair.

 

Pete sat in a chair to the side of the sofa and smiled at the site of the two women with panda eyes and running mascara.

 

“Are you okay?” he asked them. They both dabbed their eyes eyes with tissues from the box on the table.

 

“Early days yet, but yeah, we’re gonna be okay,” Jackie said. “We’re fighters us Tyler women, we’ll get through this, won’t we love.” Jackie kissed Rose on the top of her head.

 

“Ah, Alistair, there you are. Come and sit down we have something to discuss.” The house manager had entered the room and Pete indicated an empty chair opposite him.

 

“Jacks, Rose, all the staff working here have been screened by Torchwood security and have security clearance. It makes sense when you think about it, with all the informal meetings I have here.” He cleared his throat and looked at Alistair.

 

“So, Alistair, you know all the weird stuff that goes on at Torchwood? Well it just got a whole lot weirder. I can’t tell you all the details but I can tell you this.” He looked at Jackie and conveyed all the sincerity he could in his face and his voice.

 

“This is my wife, Jacqueline Andrea Suzette Tyler.” He gave a laugh. “I got it right that time, messed it up at the wedding didn’t I Jacks.”

 

Jackie and Rose stared at him in disbelief. The only way he could have known that is if he was there. It must be him.

 

“And on that day Rose, I asked your Mum to be my wife, and God knows why, she said yes. And on this day, Rose.” He paused and reached over to hold her hand. “I’m asking you if you would do me the honour.... of being my daughter?”

 

Rose turned and looked at her Mum, who was dewy eyed and about to burst into tears, not of sadness this time but tears of happiness. She looked back at Pete, who had a ‘lost puppy’ look in his eyes.

 

“I.... I....” she stuttered.

 

“Look, you don’t have to say anything now if you don’t want to. I know it’s all a bit weird and Mickey said this weird stuff happens all the time to you, bu....”

 

“Yes!” she said quietly. “Oh yes! Definitely yes. Thank you. Yes.”

 

“You will? Even after the way I’ve behaved towards you, you’d say yes. Oh I don’t deserve you Rose.” His eyes were filling with tears. He stood up and pulled her into a fatherly hug.

 

“Alistair, may I introduce Rose, Marion Tyler. My long lost, and now found daughter. She has been studying at college in Switzerland, away from media attention. When the Cybermen attacked, I sent Jackie away to stay with her until she had finished her course. And now we are back together as a family.” He had his arm around her shoulder in a protective, fatherly way. She was looking down at her hands, still full of sorrow for her lost Doctor.

 

“She has lost someone today, someone very close and.... Anyway, please show her all the kindness and patience you can.” That was a message for him to keep his sarcasm under wraps for now.

 

Alistair stood up. “Understood sir, I shall go and inform the staff of the developments and curtail the gossip.” He left the room and closed the door behind him.

 

Pete looked into Rose’s eyes. “Believe it or not Rose, I know part of what you are going through, I went through it three years ago. I know about the pain, the sorrow and the guilt and how it makes you feel ill.”

 

Rose’s eyes started to fill with tears again.

 

“But it does get better. You can trust me on this,” he said with his roguish smile. “It just takes time is all.”

 

 

+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

 

 

The rest of the afternoon passed quietly, Rita Anne was introduced to the new arrivals and immediately took Rose under her wing. She may have been blind, but Rose was radiating sorrow and loss that you could feel at 20 paces.

 

When Alice Dimaggio arrived, she walked in the garden with Rose, telling her how she had been a psychologist with Torchwood. After losing her partner in the Cybermen attacks, she had received counselling and felt that it was something she could do.

 

She then remained quiet and let Rose tell her about the life and the love she had lost. She would prompt her when her thoughts stalled, and change direction when her thoughts became too dark. When it came time for her to leave, Alice promised to return and gave Rose her card should she need to talk.

 

They all sat in the dining room for a beautifully cooked evening meal, although Rose just picked at the food, she wasn’t hungry. However with some gentle chiding from Rita Anne, she had a few mouthfuls and had to admit that the cook was very good.

 

Rose announced early that she was tired and wanted to go to bed. Mickey showed her to the suite of rooms that Pete told her were hers. It was only when she went into the bedroom that she realised that she didn’t have any nightclothes. In fact she didn’t have anything except what she was wearing.

 

When she walked over to the bed, she saw a pair of hospitality, one-size-fits-all pyjamas that had been set out for her. She wearily stripped off, put on the pyjamas and climbed into bed. The mattress was really comfortable and the duvet was warm, she closed her eyes and began to weep until an exhausted sleep took her.

 

Pete and Jackie sat cuddled on a sofa in the lounge drinking wine and chatting about their past lives. They laughed at the similarities and the differences of their worlds and began to re-make their acquaintance. The television was on and occasionally they would stop to watch a news report before returning to their conversation.

 

It was after midnight when, hand in hand they ascended the grand staircase and went to their bedroom. They stood by the bed in awkward silence, looking at each other with embarrassed expressions on their faces.

 

“Well,” Pete said

 

“Well,” Jackie replied.

 

“Here we are then,” Pete said as he rubbed his hand over his head.

 

“Oh God, this is crazy! I feel like I’m on a first date,” she told him.

 

“Well, technically we are. We could always....” Before he could finish what he was going to say, Jackie had pounced on him and started to snog him. She pulled at the buttons on his black shirt while he pulled the zipper down on her sweat top.

 

They broke contact with their lips as he pulled her top and bra over her head, and then like magnets they were on each other again. They fumbled with the buttons and zips on their trousers until eventually they were naked and falling onto the bed.

 

Pent up sexual energy, 20 years worth for Jackie and 3 years worth for Pete, fuelled their passionate encounter. They didn’t get much sleep that night, and Pete was amazed that for a man of his age, his tackle still worked, and what’s more, it performed like he was still a teenager.

 

Jackie also had no complaints.

 

It was late morning when Pete’s eyes reluctantly opened and let in the dim light of the curtained room. They wouldn’t have been so reluctant if they’d have known what was waiting for them.

 

He just lay there and took in the face of his sleeping wife. He could see the hard life that she’d had etched on the lines on her face. Not unattractive lines, but character lines that, to him, made her more appealing.

 

That sixth sense that tells you when someone is watching you kicked in and she started to stir. Her eyes fluttered open and she looked puzzled, then amazed and finally blissfully happy.

 

“It wasn’t a dream then? You’re real,” she said in a quiet voice.

 

“Does this feel real?” He kissed her gently at first and then she returned the kiss more passionately.

 

“Oh yes!” she squeaked breathlessly.

 

He gave her that ‘Pete Tyler’ smile and reached for the bedside table where a tiny earpiece was waiting to be reunited with his ear. It was Torchwood tech and all the staff in the mansion had them so that they could work more efficiently.

 

“Alistair.” They were voice activated on a closed intranet, say a name and it connects you to that person. “Could you rustle up some breakfast please.... Thanks.”

 

“That’s a bit flash!” Jackie said with a smile. Pete just grinned at her.

 

A breakfast of tea and toast arrived on trays, with a choice of butter or marmalade, and when they’d finished a realisation came to Pete that had occurred to Rose the night before.

 

“I’ve just thought, you’ve got no clothes,” he said.

 

Jackie grinned and looked under the duvet. “I’d have thought you’d have noticed that last night, as you’re the one who took ‘em off.”

 

He laughed. “No, I mean all you’ve got to wear is what you came in.”

 

“Jenny.... Could you pull my wife’s things from storage.... Yeah, have them sent to our room please.... Thank you.” Jackie gave him a questioning look.

 

“I didn’t have the heart to get rid of them. Eventually I would have sent them to a charity organisation for auction or somethin’.” He had another one of those pangs of guilt. Was he being unfaithful to the memory of his dead wife? “Anyway, some of the stuff might be a bit flamboyant for you, keep what you like and we’ll send the rest to good causes.”

 

Jackie kissed him on the cheek. “It’s alright to talk about her y’know. I want to know about your life here, what it was like before I came.” Her eyes then went wide with a realisation that Rose had nothing as well.

 

“Oh Pete! Rose has nothin’ to wear either. We’ll have to go and get some things for her,” she told him.

 

“Hmmm, I don’t think she’s going to be in a mood for shopping,” he mused. “Tell you what, I’ll call Alice. She can phone Rose and see what she needs and then pick it up on the way over. She can charge it to Torchwood.”

 

Jackie kissed him on the cheek again. “I can see why you’re a success in this world.”

 


	8. Learning to live again

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rose starts a new job and Jackie gives Pete some good news.

 

** Chapter Eight **

 

 

The next few days passed quickly for Pete. He and Jackie were getting on really well and behaving like a couple of newlyweds. He was still worried about Rose though. She stayed in her room mostly and he could hear her crying when he passed her door.

 

She would come out of her room when Alice came to counsel her, and with her insistence she had started to eat meals with the family in the dining room.

 

After her latest session, Alice sat down with Pete and Jackie and updated them on her progress.

 

“I know it probably doesn’t look like it, but Rose is doing really well. Don’t forget that she not only lost her love and a lifestyle, she has also experienced a culture shock. The safe haven of her bedroom on the Powell estate has gone, and that leaves her exposed and vulnerable.”

 

“Is there anything we can do to help her?” Jackie asked her.

 

“You already are without knowing it. Just be there for her, love her and be patient,” Alice told them. Jackie looked at Pete and they nodded, they could do that.

 

After the weekend, Pete and Mickey were back to work and life pretty much returned to normal, with the exception that Pete couldn’t wait to get back home at the end of the day. The mansion was a proper home again, full of people, conversation and noise, it was alive. Brilliant!

 

 

** Three weeks after arriving in Pete's world **

 

 

Three weeks after the Canary Wharf incident, Pete was in his office dealing with the paperwork that came with an institute that had to deal with the government and intelligence organisations. The intercom ‘pinged’ for his attention and the flashing light indicated that it was the Special Operations Unit.

 

“Tyler here,” he told the intercom.

 

“Pete, it’s Andy. We’ve got a team out at a shout in Gravesend. It’s a building site and workmen have found what they think is a WW II bomb. Turns out though that it’s some sort of alien artefact,” McNab told him.

 

“That sounds fairly routine so far, so why are you calling me?” Pete asked him. He knew that something else was going on, otherwise McNab wouldn’t have called him.

 

“Well, Mickey radioed in to say that your daughter had told him a story about a cylinder that contained some sort of alien virus. Apparently it was somethin’ to do with this Doctor guy. We really could do with some advice on this one,” McNab said.

 

“I’m not putting Rose in any danger Andy, sorry.” He had become very protective over his new daughter.

 

“No problem Pete. If you can get her to the Operations room, we can send a live HD feed from the robot. We can control it from here and she can direct us where to look,” he suggested.

 

Pete thought that this would be a really good idea. It would get Rose out of the house and hopefully show her that she could make a useful contribution to this world that she found herself in.

 

“Okay Andy. Power up the robot and keep everyone back. I’ll give Rose a call and see if she’ll agree.” Pete switched off the intercom and picked up the phone. He speed dialled Rose’s mobile.

 

“Hello?” Rose’s quiet, meek voice answered the call.

 

“Hi Rose, it’s....” Does he say Pete or does he say Dad? Is she ready for that next step? What the hell, there was only one way to find out. “Dad, Mickey has just radioed in from a mission and he thinks you might be able to help,” he told her.

 

“Me? Are you sure?” Pete noticed her voice was lighter and stronger now. It was either saying ‘Dad’ or ‘Mickey’ that had done it, and he didn’t know or care which. But secretly he hoped it was ‘Dad’.

 

“Yep. Something about an adventure you told him about. We need you to look at a video feed to see if you can identify an alien object.”

 

“Erm, yeah okay, I can do that,” she replied.

 

“Oh that’s great Sweetheart, I’ll send a driver for you, see you soon. Bye for now.”

 

“Bye.... Dad.” Pete’s heart skipped a beat. She had just called him Dad, she actually called him Dad!

 

 

+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

 

 

“Pan left.... Stop. Up.... Stop. Can we zoom in?.... That’s it. Can we move the camera so that we’re looking down on that bit?” Rose was directing the remote driver so that she could get a better look at the control panel. He moved the telescopic arm into a better position.

 

“Is there anyway of clearing the dirt off that panel?” she asked.

 

“Yeah, sure.” He put on an animatronic glove and started waving the air in front of him. On the large HD plasma screen, a soft brush carefully wiped the dried mud off the panel.

 

“That’s it. That’s the controls for opening the cylinder. Those markings are the same that were on the Chula medical transport,” she declared to the room.

 

“What threat level are we looking at here? Mickey said something about a virus that changed people’s bodies,” McNab said.

 

Rose started to tell the story. It brought back good memories, and feelings of loss. “It contains nanogenes, molecular robots that repair injured cells. The only reason they changed peoples bodies was because they didn’t have a pattern to work from when they healed a child wearing a gas mask. When we found his mother, the nanogenes used her to map the damage and repair it properly.... And everybody lived that day.” She smiled at the memory of how happy the Doctor had been that everyone had lived.

 

She dabbed at the tears in her eyes and Pete came over and gave her a comforting hug. “Well done Sweetheart, are you okay?”

 

“Yeah, I’ll be fine. Alice warned me that certain sights, sounds or smells could bring back memories. I need to do this,” she told him.

 

“Inside is a golden mist of nanogenes. As long as you have a body of reference, they are very beneficial. One woman even got her missing leg back. You have to be careful though, if the transport detects a threat, it can go into defence mode and turn people into soldiers.” She had a proud look on her face, she’d done it. She looked up at Pete and saw his face beaming a proud smile.

 

The remote driver checked the rest of the transport and found no breaches in the hull. A lorry with loading crane was sent in to recover the object and bring it back to the warehouse.

 

Pete took her to the restaurant and met with Jackie who was having a cup of tea and a Chelsea bun. When Rose told her she was coming to help Torchwood, there was nothing in this world or her old world that would stop her from coming along.

 

“How’d it go Sweetheart?” she asked, as Rose approached the table. Pete had gone to the counter to get two teas.

 

“It was good Mum. I actually knew what it was and I could tell them how to deal with it.” Rose was smiling. Jackie noticed that it was her old smile, not the one she had put on lately to stop people worrying about her.

 

“Did she tell you Jacks? She was brilliant back there, handled it like a pro.” Pete was still beaming his proud dad smile. They sat down and Pete handed Rose the styrofoam cup of tea.

 

“How are you feeling Rose, I mean you haven’t been inside this building since.... That day?” Pete asked her.

 

“It’s a bit weird really, It doesn’t seem the same. There are no Cybermen or Daleks tryin’ to kill me this time.” She gave a little laugh.

 

“Yeah, it does tend to colour your judgement, don’t it,” Pete laughed. “When we’ve finished our teas, I’d like to show you something and then discuss an idea with you.”

 

They got out of the lift on the top floor and headed for Pete’s office. Rose was feeling some trepidation and found her Mum’s hand to squeeze it for reassurance.

 

Opposite his office was the way to ‘that room’. There were boxes and crates in the area, with wires and cables across the floor and hanging from the ceiling. Technicians had dismantled the superconducting magnets and the parts were being crated up.

 

Pete held out his hand for Rose. “Do you want to come and have a look? It’s up to you, no pressure.” He wanted her to face her demons and conquer them. He knew she had nightmares about being pulled from this room into hell.

 

Rose also knew that she had to do this; otherwise this room would always have a hold over her. She took a deep breath and squeezed Jackie’s hand. She then released her hand and took Pete’s as they started to weave their way between the wooden crates.

 

“Mind your step with all these cables lying about. Health and safety will have my guts for garters if you trip and fall,” he said trying to keep her spirits up.

 

Rose stood before the white wall where it had all happened. She put her hand gently on the wall and felt the texture. It was just a wall. She looked over her left shoulder and could see the lever where He had been hanging on to the magnaclamp. She could see him reaching out to her and calling her name.

 

Her breath shuddered as she wiped tears from her eyes. She was going to get through this. Pete put a comforting arm around her shoulders.

 

“Are you okay?” he asked her quietly.

 

She looked up at him and back at the wall. “Yeah, I think I am actually.” She looked at him again and tried to smile. It nearly turned into a sob but she managed to hold it together. She was made of strong stuff; she got that from her Mum and Dad.

 

She turned her back on the wall, that was very symbolic for her, and followed the route that she imagined He would have walked as he left the room for the last time, only deviating to circumvent the boxes and crates.

 

She got to the end of the room and was enveloped by her mother’s arms. Pete came and put a hand on her shoulder. Alice Dimaggio walked up to them with a smile on her face.

 

“Well done Rose, I’m so proud of what you have achieved today. I think that things will get easier for you from now on.” She squeezed Rose’s arm, nodded at Pete and left.

 

“Rose?” Pete started. “Your knowledge and experience were invaluable today, how would you like to do it again?” He asked her.

 

“What, you mean you’ve got another one of those things out there?” She looked concerned.

 

Pete laughed. “No, well not that I know of, but what if we had? If you were on staff, you could help us sort these things out more quickly and more safely. What d’you say?”

 

“What? You’re offering me a job at Torchwood? The organisation that got me into this mess in the first place?” she asked him.

 

“No Rose, that was the organisation on the other side. This organisation is open and honest, I made sure of that. Ask Mickey and Jake. In fact, talk to Mickey and Jake about what it’s like to work here. There is no pressure to say yes, but it’s an open invitation if you change your mind.” Pete stood and smiled at her. She was quiet and thoughtful.

 

“I’ll talk to Mickey and Jake. That’s all, just talk,” she said.

 

 

+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

 

 

** Seven weeks after arriving in Pete's world **

 

 

Rose crouched down behind the wheelie bins in the alley. Her Heckler & Koch MP5SF, semi-automatic carbine had jammed. She could hear the slither of the alien she had been tracking, moving somewhere nearby.

 

Four weeks ago she had talked to Mickey and Jake about working at Torchwood. They had literally frog marched her down to HR to sign up there and then. It was a brilliant idea and Mickey said she would be really good at it, what with all the running about and the hazards and all.

 

“Tyler to Alpha Control, weapon jam. About to clear and then I’ll be back, over.”

 

“Roger that Tyler, over,” the controller responded.

 

“Henderson to Tyler, there’s a lizard headin’ your way. I’ll try to cover you, over.”

 

“Roger that, thanks, over.”

 

She removed the magazine and cleared the jammed round from the chamber before re-inserting the magazine and cocking the weapon.

 

‘Grahrghh!’ A green scaly arm reached over the wheelie bins and grabbed her gun before she could aim it.

 

‘Zzzapp!’ Rose had reached for her stunner that she carried in a leg pocket of her black, Torchwood uniform. The green lizard alien fell backwards and went ‘ow’.

 

“Bloody ‘ell Rose, where did that come from?” Mickey whined.

 

“Sorry mate, but you took my gun!” Rose stood up from behind the bins and walked around to pick up her carbine. Mickey sat up and pulled the alien mask off his head. Captain McNab walked into the alley and switched on the warehouse lights with a remote switch.

 

“Tyler, what’s that you’ve got there? I don’t remember that being issued from the armoury?” he said. Other aliens were coming out now and taking off their heads. The other ‘newbies’ came from various locations into the alley.

 

“No Captain, this is my preferred weapon,” she told him with a smile. “The friend I used to travel with would have loved ‘em, you can’t kill anythin’ with it. Oh, and I turned it down for trainin’, I didn’t want to hurt anyone, did I.”

 

“Ya could’ve fooled me!” Mickey said, working his shoulders. Rose giggled at him.

 

“Knowin’ how sneaky the trainin’ is here, I suspected that one of the blanks might be a dummy that jammed the gun. So I thought a bit of back up wouldn’t go amiss.” She looked pleased with herself.

 

McNab’s stern face broke into a huge grin as he let out a belly laugh.

 

“Tyler, you’re a natural. I wish we’d had some like you in my old unit in Hereford,” he told her. “You cleared your weapon well, but next time lean forward and keep your weapon safe between you and the floor.”

 

“Yes Captain,” she said, standing to attention.

 

“Your target selection was excellent as was your victim rescue. You worked with the team, but also took decisive action on your own. Well done Tyler, we’re done here for today people; get yourselves back to Torchwood for a full debriefing.”

 

“Thank you Captain,” Rose said with a grin. She went over to Mickey and stroked his arm.

 

“You Okay?” she asked him.

 

“Yeah,” he grinned. “Remind me never to piss you off though, won’t you.”

 

They left the warehouse laughing.

 

After a very encouraging debriefing, Rose went up to Pete’s office to wait for a ride home.

 

“How’d it go Sweetheart? Did Andy pull the gun-jam trick on ya?” Pete asked her as he kissed her on the cheek. “The guys poured a load of smelly gunk over me while I was clearin’ the chamber,” he laughed as he remembered.

 

“Yeah,” she said. “It went really well. I cleared the jam really quick, but Mickey grabbed my gun. He didn’t get chance to slime me ‘cause I zapped him with my stunner.”

 

Pete howled with laughter. “What did Andy say about that?”

 

“He loved it. He just told me after the debrief that he once threw a paintball grenade when they tried it at his old SAS unit in Hereford,” she giggled.

 

“He’s a good bloke Andy, we’re lucky to have him here. Are you ready to go home then?”

 

“Yeah, I’m all done today.” Pete opened up his briefcase and put some papers in it. Rose picked up her holdall and put it over her shoulder. Hand in hand they walked out of his office and headed for the lift.  

 

In the car Rose was quiet and Pete looked over at her. She had a faraway look on her face.

 

“You okay?” he asked her casually, keeping an eye on the traffic.

 

She came out of her reverie. “Yeah, I’m fine. Just thinkin’.”

 

“About Him?” Pete knew that look when she remembered her former life.

 

Rose looked over and smiled. “Yeah. When I’m workin’ and trainin’, I’ve got things to distract me, and when I finish, the memories come floodin’ back.” Pete looked concerned.

 

“Oh don’t worry Dad, I’m okay with that, well, sort of. It’s gettin’ easier. I thought about him today when I zapped Mickey.” She giggled at the thought. “He hated guns and weapons, but a stunner where everybody lives, I wondered if he’d approve of that? I think he would.”

 

Pete dropped Rose by the front steps and carried on around to the garages to park his BMW. Rose climbed the stone steps and went in through the front door. Her Mum came out of the lounge, looking down the hall.

 

“Is Pete with you?” she asked. She seemed a bit distracted and agitated.

 

“He’s just parking the car. Are you alright Mum?” Rose asked, concerned.

 

“What? Oh, yeah, I’m fine Sweetheart, fine. I just need to talk to your Dad, that’s all.”

 

Jackie saw Pete coming up the steps and walked past Rose, grabbed him by the elbow and guided him into the drawing room.

 

“We need to talk!” is all she said before she shut the door and left Rose standing alone in the hall, completely baffled by her mother’s behaviour.

 

“WHAT!” That was Pete’s muffled voice coming through the door.

 

“HAH! WHEN?” ‘What the hell is going on?’ Rose thought to herself.

 

The door burst open and Pete ran out dragging Jackie by the hand.

 

“BRILLIANT!” he said, his ‘Pete Tyler’ smile was magnified tenfold.

 

“Rose! I.... She.... We.... Oh tell her, tell her.” Pete was so excited about something that he couldn’t put a sentence together. Jackie was hugging his arm and radiating a smile Rose hadn’t seen before.

 

“Rose.... Rose, you’re gonna be a big sister,” Jackie told her, her voice full of emotion.

 

The Doctor would have called it a ‘temporal perception delay’, as nothing happened for what seemed a very long time. Actually it was milliseconds as Rose processed the information she had just been given.

 

She screamed, tears immediately filled her eyes as she ran forwards and enveloped them both in a rib-cracking hug.

 

Rose and Jackie proceeded to discuss all the important things that women discuss in these situations. ‘How far along?’, ‘When did you find out?’, ‘When’s it due?’, ‘What do you want, boy or girl?’.

 

Pete put his earpiece in and called Alistair, and he appeared a few minutes later.

 

“Alistair, crack open a bottle of the non-alcoholic champagne, we have something to celebrate,” Pete told him, his smile still beaming.

 

“Really sir?” Alistair replied, raising an eyebrow.

 

“Yes, my wife is with child,” he said, a bit pompous but very proud.

 

“Oh congratulations Sir. And shall I call the interior designers to prepare a nursery, or will the new arrival be staying in Switzerland?” He had a gleam in his eye and a smirk on his face.

  
Jackie burst out laughing at Pete’s stunned face. “I don’t know where you found this one love, but he’s pure gold, pure gold.” She patted Alistair’s arm with affection.

 


	9. Dårlig Ulv Stranden

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We all know that scene on the beach. I can't watch it without filling up.

 

** Chapter Nine **

 

 

** Five months after arriving in Pete's world **

 

 

“Mum? Dad? Are you awake?” Rose’s whispered voice floated through the darkness of the bedroom.

 

“Urgh, Rose? Is that you?” As soon as she asked it she knew it was a dumb question. Who else would call them Mum or Dad?

 

“Are you alright Sweetheart? What’s the matter?” She dug Pete in the ribs with her elbow. “Pete, somethin’s up with Rose!”

 

“Mmmm, Wha’?” he mumbled.

 

Rose came and sat on the bed as Jackie switched on the bedside lamp and screwed up her eyes against the light.

 

“I had this vivid dream, but it wasn’t a dream, well I don’t think it was a dream,” she was trying to put into words what she had experienced.

 

“Can it wait ‘til the morning?” Pete asked her.

 

“NO! No, sorry, no. It’s important, I’ve got to go. He’s coming and I’ve got to be there for him.” Rose was almost crying with the emotions of the dream / not-dream flying through her head.

 

“Alright Sweetheart, calm down. C’mon Pete, let’s have a cup of tea and hear what she’s got to say.” Pete reluctantly got out of bed and put his dressing gown on. In the zombie fashion of someone still asleep but walking, he headed for the door.

 

They went down the hallway towards the top of the stairs, talking quietly when Mickey popped his head out of his room.

 

“Whassup?” he asked as they started to descend the stairs.

 

“ET’s tryin’ to phone home,” Jackie said sarcastically.

 

Mickey lit the fire in the lounge while Pete made a pot of tea. They sat in the comfy chairs and on the sofa as they settled down to hear Rose’s dream.

 

“I was having that recurring dream when I’m falling down the white room and I can see Him reaching out to me and he’s shouting my name. I haven’t had this dream for a couple of months now.” She took a sip of her tea. Pete yawned and then focussed back on Rose.

 

“But this time, it turned from a frantic shouting to a gentle calling, and he reached my hand and pulled me from the void. When the breach closed and the howling and wind stopped, we were standing on a beach. He said he didn’t have much time and he wanted to see me, he needed to see me.”

 

“Where was the beach?” Mickey asked.

 

Rose frowned. “I know the beach, it seems familiar, but I don’t know where it is. I don’t even think I’ve been there before, but I know it. Does that sound crazy?”

 

“It does Sweetheart, yes,” Jackie said. “But where that alien’s concerned, no, it don’t sound crazy at all.”

 

“The Doctor’s world of weirdness,” Pete laughed, using Mickey’s phrase.

 

“When I woke up I had this overwhelming feeling that I had to go north and go now, tonight, ‘cause he’s there on the beach waitin’ for me. Mum, I’ve got to go.”

 

“C’mon Rose, I’ve seen what the Doctor can do. If he needs ya, we’re goin’,” Mickey said. He stood up and headed back to his room to get dressed.

 

“Hang on, we’re comin’ too,” Jackie said. “I’ll make a flask of tea and some sandwiches for later.”

 

 

+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

 

 

Rose, Pete and Mickey were assembled in the darkened hallway by the front door, waiting for Jackie. They heard the flush of the toilet and the washing of hands. Mickey was grinning and Rose rolled her eyes.

 

“Right then, are we ready?” Jackie asked as she came along the hall. “Pete, have you got your keys to get back in?”

 

“Jacks, we’ve got staff to let us back in,” he reminded her.

 

“Yeah, but if we get back at two in the mornin’, we don’t want to be wakin’ everyone up now do we?”

 

She looked at Rose and Mickey. “Have you two been to the toilet? It’s probably a long drive y’know.”

 

“Mum! Let’s just go. We’re wastin’ time,” Rose said, exasperated.

 

They made their way outside and around to the garages. Pete took Jackie’s bag of supplies and put it in the back of the Land Rover.

 

“What ya doin’?” she asked him. “What about the beamer?”

 

“Jacks, Rose said that he was waitin’ on a beach. If we’ve got to drive across a beach, we’ll need the Land Rover,” Pete explained.

 

“Oh bloody ‘ell! An’ I was lookin’ forward to this little trip an’ all. Right, gimme yer keys to the front door, bring her ‘round to the front an’ I’ll meet ya there.” Jackie turned and made her way back to the house.

 

Pete pulled up by the front steps and Jackie came out carrying some cushions from the lounge. She opened the passenger door and threw them in. She pulled herself in with an ‘oof’ and arranged the cushions under her bum and lower back.

 

“Well a woman in my condition needs to be comfortable.” Pete laughed, leaned over and gave her a kiss on the cheek.

 

They were heading north. Mickey and Pete took it in turns to drive up the M1 and the A1. Occasionally they would ask Rose if they were still on course. She would just nod and tell them to keep going north.

 

Rose had nodded off in the back of the Land Rover. She could see the Doctor in his brown pinstripe suit, standing on the beach. His hair was sticking up as usual and he was giving her that smile, his hand held out waiting for her. She woke with a start. They were on the outskirts of Newcastle.

 

“It’s across the water!” she told them.

 

“What? The Tyne, he’s come to Newcastle?” Mickey asked.

 

“No, not the river, the sea. He’s across the North Sea.”

 

“Let’s have a look then,” Mickey said as he got his Torchwood tablet out of his bag. “Ferries from Newcastle.” He started a web search. “The Netherlands is south, Denmark, that’s east, which leaves Norway, that’s north.”

 

“Norway! That’s it Mickey, Norway,” she said excitedly.

 

“Okay I’ll book some tickets for when we get to the ferry port.”

 

“Oh God!” Rose exclaimed. “Passports. We’ve come all this way and we’ve got no passports. If we go back I’ll miss him.” Tears were welling up in her eyes

 

Without opening her eyes Jackie said. “Well, it’s a good job yer Mum thinks of everythin’ then isn’t it. They’re in the bag with the food.”

 

“Oh Mum, I love you! What would I do without you?” she said.

 

“Ya wouldn’t be goin’ to Norway that’s for sure.” She had a lopsided smile on her face.

 

 

+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

 

 

“Where is he then?” Pete asked as he leaned against the Land Rover. “I thought Rose said he was waitin’ for her.”

 

“Trust ‘im to be late,” Jackie said as she poured tea from the thermos. “An’ ‘e’s got the cheek to call ‘imself a Time Lord. I told you about the time ‘e was a year late didn’t I?” she asked Pete. Pete nodded with a smile. That was one of his favourite Jackie/Doctor stories.

 

Mickey was browsing on the tablet. “He’s picked a good day for it. Apparently it rains on average three days a week in Bergen.”

 

“Really?” Pete was starting to think business. “I wonder who makes and sells their umbrellas.”

 

Mickey had put the tablet down and was now scanning the beach with one of the Torchwood scanners that was in his bag. There was nothing unusual at the moment. Rose was standing on her own about 100 metres away. She looked so small and fragile out there on her own.

 

“Oh God Pete! What if he wants to take her off again, we’ll probably never see her again.” She patted her stomach. “This one will never know its sister.” She was getting herself all upset. Pete put a comforting arm around her.

 

“Look, He said that the breach was sealed, no going back. Whatever’s going on here, he’s not going to take her anywhere,” he reassured her.

 

“ROSE! It’s going hot, I’ve got a reading near you,” Mickey called out.

 

“Look, is that something there,” Pete said as he pointed to the side of where Rose was standing.

 

They could just make out a faint, translucent figure. It was Him. They watched as Rose turned around and walked towards him.

 

“Some kind of holographic projection,” Mickey told them. “Wow! It’s givin’ off a shed load of energy. How’s he doin’ that?”

 

“Can you hear what they’re sayin’?” Jackie asked him.

 

“Nah, too far away and the wind’s carrying their voices away from us. Anyway, it’s private,” Mickey chided. He took out his hi-tech binoculars. “Oh man, he looks bad. I don’t think I’ve seen him look so sad. His lips are smiling but his eyes are almost cryin’.” Mickey put the glasses away; it was breaking his heart to see him like this.

 

Suddenly, he was gone and Rose was hunched over, alone. A tiny figure on a large beach.

 

“Oh Pete! I can hear her cryin’.” Jackie ran across the beach and gently pulled Rose into a hug, which she readily returned. They just stood there for a long time, Rose crying and Jackie comforting.

 

“I’d better give Alice a call when we get back,” Pete told Mickey. “I hope we’re not back to square one again.”

 

 

+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

 

 

“He’s given up on me Alice.” Rose was wiping her eyes with a tissue. “But he never gives up! He always keeps going, keeps tryin’ ‘til he’s found a way of doin’ somethin’.”

 

“Do you think he was lying to you then Rose?” Alice asked gently. “Do you believe there is a way for him to come back but he’s too scared or it’s too risky?”

 

“Oh I don’t know. I told him I loved him, maybe he wasn’t ready to hear that. But I’m sure he was going to tell me that he loved me as well. I could see that he was devastated when he thought I was pregnant.”

 

“So maybe he’s right then, that it will destroy the universe, getting back to you.”

 

“So am I just suppose to forget him, to find someone who’ll try to measure up to him, and fail, someone who’ll always be second best.”

 

“No Rose, never forget him. Remember him and think how he would want you to be happy. You told me he sent you away once and left a message. What did he ask you to do?”

 

“And if you want to remember me, then you can do one thing. That's all, one thing. Have a good life. Do that for me, Rose. Have a fantastic life.” Rose never forgot those words.

 

“What you’ve got to do Rose is think of ways to do that for him, in a way that would make him proud, and you happy.” Alice stood up with Rose and gave her a long hug. “I’ll see myself out Rose, and think about what I said. I’ll see you on Thursday.”   

 

 

+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

 

 

** One year after arriving in Pete's world **

 

 

04:00 the clock on the bedside table displayed. A woman new to this might have thought it was indigestion. It may have been over 20 years, but Jackie knew a contraction when she felt one. Her waters hadn’t broken yet, but they would.

 

“Pete?” She nudged him with her elbow. “Pete, it’s started.”

 

“Mmmmm?” He was asleep.

 

“Alpha-control to Pete Tyler, alien incursion at Tyler mansion, respond,” she said in his ear.

 

He was now awake. “What? What did you say?”

 

Jackie pointed at the round bump in front of her. “Life changing event on the way, time to mobilize.”

 

Pete leapt out of bed and looked at Jackie. “Er, what? Right, don’t panic. Breathe, breathe.” He imitated the breathing.

 

“That’s later ya daft puddin’. they’re not regular yet. Go an’ put the kettle on and make a cuppa while I get dressed.”

 

Pete got dressed and went to the kitchen, while Jackie went to the on-suite toilet. She was grateful that she did, because her water broke half way through having a pee!

 

Jackie had a quick shower and dried herself off. She put on a comfortable baggy tracksuit and before going to the kitchen, quietly knocked on her daughter’s door.

 

“Rose? You awake?” she whispered into the dark room.

 

“Mmmmm. Mum, is that you?” she asked sleepily.

 

“Yeah Sweetheart. I thought you might like to know that the baby’s on the way.”

 

“WHA’?” Rose was wide awake. “Are you okay? Do you need me to do somethin’?”

 

“Everythin’s fine. You said you’d like to come to the hospital with us. Do you still want to?”

 

“Oh yes, give me a minute and I’ll be right down.”

 

Jackie closed the door and went down to the kitchen for her cup of tea. Halfway there she had another contraction, she looked at her watch, it was 04:23.

 

When the contractions became more frequent and intense, Pete phoned the number the hospital had given them and they were advised to make their way in. Rose grabbed the bag while Pete supported his wife on their way down the steps to the BMW.

 

05:30 and Jackie in a wet t-shirt, was sitting between Pete’s swimming shorted legs in the birthing pool. She rested her head back against his chest and relaxed after breathing through another strong contraction.

 

“I love the wet t-shirt look by the way,” he whispered in her ear. Jackie gave a weak laugh.

 

“Okay Jackie, that last one has made it ten centimetres. When the next one comes you can push,” her midwife told her.

 

Rose was sitting in the relatives room, nursing a cup of hospital tea. ‘Wow this stuff travels between universes’ she thought to herself as she took a sip of the hot, brown fluid. It stuck to the roof of her mouth before making its way down her throat.

 

She could hear her Mum groaning now through the door. This was it then; ‘it’ was on the way out. She had to call the baby ‘it’ because they didn’t know what sex ‘it’ was.

 

The sonographer had asked them if they wanted to know, but Jackie asked Pete if he minded it being a surprise. Pete was just happy to know that the baby was healthy.

 

Rose smiled at what Jackie had told her about the scan. The sonographer had asked them if it was their first baby. They said ‘yes’ and ‘no’ together and laughed. The sonographer assumed that they had previous partners, which, in a way they had. Jackie had used the stock phrase that you tended to use when you had been involved with the Doctor. ‘It’s complicated’ she told her.

 

The door to the birthing room opened and the midwife popped her head around the door.

 

“Miss Tyler? Rose?” she asked her.

 

“Er, yeah. Is everythin’ okay?”

 

The woman smiled. “Everything is fine. Would you like to come in? There is someone waiting to meet you.”

 

Rose went into the room and saw her Mum lying back against her Dad. She looked tired, but Rose had never seen her look so happy. Pete looked as though he might explode with pride at any moment.

 

Lying on her Mum’s chest was a little pink bundle of humanity. Pete’s arms enveloped Jackie and he was gently stroking the baby’s back.

 

“Hi Sweetheart,” Jackie said, her voice heavy with exhaustion. “Come and meet your little brother.”

 

Rose knelt down by the side of the pool with tears welling in her eyes. Her brother had his eyes closed, and his mouth looked as though he was sucking a lemon, his chin moving as his tongue sucked inside his mouth.

 

“Anthony, Stephen Tyler,” Jackie breathed. “This is your sister Rose.”

 

Rose hesitantly reached out and stroked his wet head.

 

“Oh God Mum,” she whispered. “He’s so gorgeous.”

 

Pete and Jackie both noticed that for the first time since she had been stranded here in this ‘other’ world, her smile had returned. Not her public smile, but her private one, the one she used to give the Doctor.

 

“Would you like Rose to hold him while we get you out of the pool?” the midwife asked.

 

Jackie looked up and smiled at Rose. “Would you mind Sweetheart?”

 

“Yeah, sure. Oh wow, yeah, I’d love to.”

 

The midwife lifted Tony off Jackie and wrapped him in a clean warm towel, giving his body a gentle rub before handing him to Rose who was now seated in a chair.

 

As Rose accepted the tiny bundle, something strange happened. A memory was reawakened in her. She was in a church with the Doctor. Her Dad takes a baby from her Mum and puts it in her arms.

 

It was a paradox, she was holding herself.

 

Back in the present, Rose’s vision started to blur. She was seeing things through a golden haze. She was looking at her brother and could see all of space and time rolled out before him, his options, his choices, his life.

 

Rose started to slowly weep.

 

“Rose? Are you alright.” She could hear echoing distant voices. “Rose Sweetheart, are you okay?” It was her Mum.

 

“Wha? Oh, Mum. Yeah, I’m fine. I was just carried away by the emotion.” She wiped her eyes with her free hand.

 

Rose noticed that Jackie and Pete were wearing bathrobes now and she stood up as Jackie sat in one of the other chairs. She handed Tony over carefully, and holding back the tears she told them she was going to get some air.

  
She went through the relatives room and out into the corridor and began to sob. Holding her brother had made her realise that she would never be able to do that with her own child. Her true love was lost to her and she would never have a child with anyone but Him.

 


	10. Twinkle twinkle little stars

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Times moved on a bit in this chapter and Rose tries out the dimension cannon with unexpected results.

 

** Chapter Ten **

 

 

** Two years, six months after arriving in Pete's world **

 

 

Lori B. Garver, NASA Deputy Administrator was on the large video conference screen in the cabinet room. Harriet Jones was asking her about the images from the Hubble telescope.

 

“Madam President, while the Hubble telescope was taking images for the extreme deep field study in the Fornax constellation, it was noticed by one of the astronomers that a galaxy 13 billion light years away was fainter than it was on a previous image,” she explained.

 

Malcolm Taylor cut in. “Lori, its Malcolm Taylor. Do you know what caused the decrease in magnitude?”

 

“Oh hello Malcolm. We think so, but we hope we are wrong. We postponed the extreme deep field project so that we could point everything we had at the galaxy. I’ll show you what we’ve got.”

 

A series of images, consisting of dots of light on a black background popped onto the screen. Each one showed a fainter and fainter point of light until it disappeared. There was also a stream of data from the spectrometers from far infrared through x-rays.

 

“Dear God no,” Malcolm said. “Have you verified this data?”

 

“I’m afraid so, there is no doubt,” Lori replied.

 

“What?” Harriet asked. “What’s wrong, what is it Dr. Taylor?”

 

“It’s the beginning of the end!” Malcolm said quietly. “Each star in that distant galaxy was extinguished one by one, that’s why it lost luminosity over time. If you look at the data, there is another galaxy, slightly closer that is starting to dim.”

 

“Are you trying to tell me that whatever it is that’s eating galaxies is getting closer?” There was a hint of panic in her question.

 

“Yes Madam President, it will eventually reach us and eat our own galaxy,” Malcolm said.

 

“Then we must find a way to stop it,” Harriet declared. “Director Tyler, please divert all your resources over to finding a solution to this phenomenon. Funding will not be an issue, whatever you need, you have only to ask. And I don’t think I have to remind you that this is top secret, if the public get wind of this, it will be global chaos.”

 

Harriet adjourned the meeting and Pete took Malcolm back to Torchwood to talk with Dr. Roger Stansfield.

 

Stansfield had stayed on at Torchwood after the dimensional transporter project had finished. He enjoyed teaching at Oxford, but the opportunity to do research in trans-dimensional physics was too good to miss.

 

Once he got back from the Palace of Westminster, Pete called Rose up to his office. In private he explained the findings from the Hubble space telescope.

 

“Dad, what are we going to do?” she asked him.

 

He took a deep breath and blew it out slowly, his shoulders sagged. “I have absolutely no idea,” he admitted. “This is the kind of thing the Doctor would know how to fix.”

 

 

+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

 

 

Five months after the emergency cabinet meeting, Dr. Roger Stansfield came bursting into Pete’s office unannounced carrying a messy pile of email printouts in his hand. He looked at Pete’s startled face and realised what he’d done. He ran back to the door and knocked it and ran straight back to the desk.

 

“Mr Tyler, I’ve just had this email from Dr. Taylor at UNIT. We’ve been corresponding since the dimension transport project ended, it’s sort of a hobby of ours and we’ve been brainstorming the missing stars. We bounce ideas off each other and this one has bounced really high,” he babbled, his words not coming quickly enough for his frustrated brain.

 

“Roger calm down, what is it?”

 

“Er, its complicated is what it is. Dr. Taylor would like to come over and discuss it with you, with us. It’s big, really big. Will you be able to meet us in my lab at 12:00?” he asked. He was literally hopping from foot to foot.

 

Pete smiled at him; he liked his childlike enthusiasm for his subject and his ability to explain his subject matter in such a way that even a child could understand it.

 

“I’ll be there at 12:00,” he told him.

 

“Excellent! Oh, and your daughter, would she be able to come to? After all, it’s the data we got from the Doctor’s actions in the lever room that gave us the clue.” With that he turned around and ran out of the room, trying to catch the thoughts that were flying out of his mind.

 

“Thank you for joining us,” Malcolm said as Pete and Rose entered the lab. “I might as well get straight to the point; we think that whatever is causing the stars to go out is opening the void again. The stars are disappearing from reality.”

 

“WHAT!” Rose’s heart leapt into her mouth. “Did he just say what I think he said?”

 

“We think we may be able to use this to our advantage. Roger has prepared a rather elegant demonstration of the complex physics involved in our theory.” Roger Stansfield and his team of scientist nodded a greeting.

 

On a worktop along one wall, stood two glass tanks half filled with water. Floating on the water were sheets of ice a few centimetres thick. Next to the tanks were two sidearms.

 

“Er, what’s going on? Does the master-at-arms know that you have firearms in here?” Pete asked suspiciously. The idea of these two ‘loose cannons’ having firearms scared him.

 

Malcolm laughed. “Don’t worry Director, they are BB guns and they will demonstrate our theory really well. Please come over and see.”

 

Pete and Rose moved over to the worktop.

 

“Miss Tyler would you pick up the first gun please?” Stansfield asked her as they reached the tanks. Rose picked up the gun and examined it before prepping it to fire.

 

“This first tank represents the events that created the anomaly in the lever room all those years ago. Would you fire the gun at the sheet of ice please? The glass is laminated so it won’t break.”

 

Rose aimed at the centre of the sheet of ice and fired. There was a ‘splut!’ as the ice split into a few pieces.

 

“The metal BB pellet represents the void ship that punched a hole in the fabric of space-time, as you can see, the ice cracked just as our universe did,” Malcolm explained. “Now, the other gun has plastic BB pellets loaded. Rose, could you try and fire through the cracks in the ice please?”

 

Rose picked up the second gun and prepped it before aiming and firing. The little yellow pellets passed through the gaps and sank to the bottom of the tank.

 

Roger took over the commentary. “The yellow pellets represent the yellow buttons that you used to pass through the cracks into the ‘water’ world. Also, the pellets can also catch some of the pieces of ice and cause more fractures. Only when you stop firing can the ice come together and refreeze into a solid sheet once more.”

 

“So the ice represents the interface between the universes and how it behaves,” Rose said, grasping the analogy.

 

“Yes, very good. Now let’s move over to the next tank. Try the plastic pellets on the ice please,” Malcolm requested.

 

Rose fired, and the pellets either bounced of or lodged on the surface of the ice.

 

“Do you see that?” Roger asked. “It’s all about energy. You need a certain amount of energy to punch through the ice. Now watch this, this is brilliant.”

 

Roger put on a protective glove and picked up an ordinary metal pea-shooter out of a beaker of boiling water. He went to the second tank and gently pushed the pea-shooter through the ice.

 

“If we apply the same energy that the void ship did, but do it slowly, the ice doesn’t fracture.” He let go of the pea-shooter and it stood upright in the ice.

 

“Now miss Tyler, can you fire a pellet through the pea-shooter?”

 

Rose put the barrel of the gun against the pea-shooter and fired. There was a little ‘plink’ noise as the plastic pellet bounced off the bottom of the tank. She fired again, and again. ‘plink’, ‘plink’.

 

Malcolm and Roger faced Pete, standing side by side, looking very pleased with themselves.

 

“We are writing a paper, ‘The Dimension Cannon Effect of the Manipulation of Trans-Dimensional Quantum States’. Director if we can re-assemble and modify the lever room, we believe with the knowledge gained from the dimensional transport project, that we could build a working dimensional cannon,” Malcolm declared. He pushed his spectacles onto the bridge of his nose.

 

Rose’s jaw was on the floor. “Are you tellin’ me you will be able to send someone.... Me through the void?”

 

“Once the cannon is energized and has opened a hole, it will be a piece of cake.” Malcolm pushed his glasses back on the bridge of his nose.

 

 

+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

 

 

** Three years, four months after arriving in Pete's world **

 

 

It was 19:13 and Mickey was with Jake and the rest of the blue shift in the standby room of S.O.U watching one of the soaps on TV. They were on a 08:00 to 20:00, 12 hour shift with three quarters of an hour to go.

 

Captain McNab came out of the operations room and looked across at Mickey.

 

“Mickey, can I see you in the office for a minute?” His voice was unusually subdued. Mickey stood up and walked over. Andy ushered him inside and shut the door.

 

“I’ve just had a call from Director Tyler. It’s about your Gran. They took up her evening meal and found her unresponsive. I’m afraid she’s passed away Mickey. I’m very sorry.” Andy put a hand on his shoulder.

 

“She’d become bedridden over the last few months,” he told him. “She was gettin’ old and sick. The doctor said it was a chest infection, she was on antibiotics for it but it wouldn’t clear up.”

 

“Go on home son, go and say your goodbyes.”

 

“Thanks Cap’n.”

 

The funeral was held a week later with the service being held at Rita Anne’s local church, which was full to bursting. The vicar told of her hard life which was filled with honesty, integrity and goodness. How she saw her blindness not as a disability, but as a gift which allowed her to see peoples hearts.

 

Mickey told of how she had kept him on the straight and narrow, even when he didn’t want to be. He had given her attitude as a teenager, and she had given him love.

 

People realised what an incredible woman she was when someone as famous and influential as Peter Tyler, CEO of Vitex and current director of Torchwood, read the lesson from the bible.

 

Family and friends then made their way to the crematorium where a final farewell was said. A reception was then held at the community centre attached to the church, with an amazing spread of food which Pete had insisted on arranging as a tribute to an amazing woman.

 

 

+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

 

 

** Three years, ten months after arriving in Pete's world **

 

 

Malcolm and Roger had assembled the ‘dream team’ of scientists and engineers again, and rebuilt the lever room at Torchwood with plenty of modifications.

 

The initial work was fairly straightforward, as they were covering old ground with the individual transporter buttons. The cannon however was a new theory and new technology. The pressure was on and the clock was ticking, more galaxies were fading and disappearing, and they were getting closer.

 

But this team were good, and did their best work when working to a deadline (a bad choice of words, deadline). And so, here they were in the abandoned warehouse again for an initial test of the new and improved dimensional transporter.  
  
There was the same briefcase with the monitoring equipment inside and the new button on top, and this time Malcolm had a laptop with a control interface for the whole set-up.  
  
“Being a ‘cannon’, we should be able to aim it,” Malcolm explained to Pete and Rose. “Once the cannon is up to full power, we should have a window through which we can search for a specific energy signature.”  
  
"What kind of energy signature?" Rose asked, hoping he would say what she was thinking.  
  
“Artron energy of course. If your statements on file are accurate, then there is only one person in that universe who stands any chance of helping us.” Malcolm looked up from the laptop. “The cannon at Torchwood is up to full power, and I’m getting coordinates for a strong source of artron energy. It’s either the Doctor or his TARDIS.”  
  
Rose looked at her father with hope in her eyes. Could this really be happening. What were they waiting for? ‘Sod the briefcase, send me’ she thought to herself.  
  
“Coordinates locked, we think. Launching in five - four - three - two - one.” The robot arm pressed the button and the briefcase disappeared.  
  
Malcolm closed the laptop and put it on the seat of the Torchwood vehicle.  
  
“Right then, who fancies a cup of tea then?” He reached into the foot well and pulled out a thermos and some paper cups.  
  
“Cup of tea?” Rose said incredulously. “What about the transporter?”  
  
“Oh, didn’t I say? The new device takes half an hour to recharge itself. The universe isn’t fractured like before so it takes more energy to get through.”  
  
Back in Dr. Stansfield’s lab, they were reviewing the DVD from the briefcase. The lab mouse, Harriet was alive and well and running on her wheel at the back of the room.  
  
“Ah, the case skidded along the ground for a while. Transfer of momentum from one location to another. We’ll have to try and correct for that in future.” Roger said, reading the data.  
  
Rose and Pete were more interested in the video recording than anything else. Rose was scouring the screen for any hint of a brown suit or blue box. The camera was on a continuous rotation and showed cars, office buildings, people walking by.  
  
“C’mon, where are you?” Rose asked.  
  
“Our aim may have been off, he may have moved, or he may be just around the corner,” Malcolm told her.  
  
“Dad, I need to go there. I need to find him,” she pleaded.  
  
Pete looked at her, smiled and then spoke to Malcolm.  
  
“Is all the data in, is it safe?” Pete asked.  
  
“Apart from the momentum, it appears to work fine. I would suggest that Rose grabs her jacket and gets ready to go.”  
  
Rose looked at Pete with her brown puppy dog eyes. “Oh Dad! Can I go? Please? I’ll come straight back, I promise.”  
  
“Indeed you will be right back Rose. The prototype transporter is set to return to its point of origin once recharged. It will be an intelligence gathering mission. This internet enabled phone will automatically log on to the internet and download data until you return. We would also like you to use the speed dial and attempt to make a call back to us here.”  
  
Pete could see she was literally bubbling with excitement. “Your Mum will kill me for this, but, what the hell, go grab your jacket from the ready room and meet us in the lever room.”  
  
Rose squealed and grabbed him in a hug. She kissed him on the cheek and ran out of the lab. Pete looked at the scientist in the room and focussed on Malcolm.  
  
“I’m trustin’ you on this,” he said and walked out of the lab.  
  
Rose was wearing her new leather jacket that Jackie had given her for Christmas. Her old black jacket brought back memories of that beach in Norway and she’d stopped wearing it. This new one was blue, a great fit and she loved it.  
  
“Okay Rose, now remember you’re a S.O.U agent and you have a mission to complete. Remember your training and stay focussed.” Pete hugged her and kissed her forehead. “Good luck soldier.”  
  
“Thanks Dad, I’ll see you in 30 minutes.”  
  
“Alright Rose, we’re up to full power and locked onto the artron energy signature. You can launch when ready.” Malcolm told her.  
  
“Okay, here we go!” She pressed the disk and disappeared.  
  
Pete looked at the clock on the wall and started counting.  
  
Rose reappeared 30 minutes later with a flash of light and a ‘whop!’, staggering forwards as she did so. Pete immediately noticed the disappointed look on her face. She handed the phone and transporter button to one of the scientists and walked into Pete’s embraced.  
  
“Never mind Sweetheart. It was always a long shot that you’d find him on the first hop,” he told her.  
  
“So, how was the mission?”  
  
“It went well; the equipment seemed to work Okay. It was weird being back ‘home’ after all this time.”  
  
Pete smiled at her. “Make your way down to Special Operations and write up your report. I’ll come and find you when it’s time to go home. We’ll debrief tomorrow when the tech guys have analysed the data on the phone.  


  
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+  


  
The conference room at Torchwood contained section heads from technical, scientific and field operation departments. Rose was present to give her report and Mickey was there because it was his home world.  
  
“So Rose, there had been an incident with an alien ship and people having the fat ‘sucked’ out of them to make alien babies?” Pete asked her for the benefit of the meeting.  
  
“That’s what the police officer said at the barricade. I can’t believe that I missed the Doctor, it’s the kind of thing he would have been right in the middle of,” Rose replied, a hint of sadness in her voice.  
  
“Our scans showed that you were right on top of the artron energy. Is there anyone else that could have that amount of energy? Did anyone interact with you?” Dr. Stansfield asked.  
  
“There was one woman, red hair, preoccupied with a rubbish bin, just before the transporter brought me back.”  
  
Roger checked the data log on his laptop. “Yes, that would be it. Do you know who she was? Could she have been the same species as the Doctor?”  
  
“No, the Doctor was the last of his kind. I don’t understand this,” Rose told them.  
  
“Hmm. The internet data on your phone indicates that the Doctor thwarted a star shaped alien craft from invading the Earth in 2007, by their calendar, and prevented an alien ship from crashing on London in 2008, so he’s certainly still active on Earth,” Chrissie Anderson announced.  
  
“Oh my God! That first one must have been just after the Canary Wharf incident!” Rose exclaimed.  
  
“We’ll have to try another jump. If we can’t find the Doctor, this mystery red head may know where he is,” Malcolm added.  
  
"Malcolm, from the data we gathered from the phone, I think I might be able to set up a video link through the cannon. If the Doctor is near any kind of media screen then we should be able to talk to him," Chrissie said.  
  
"Good work Chrissie. I think that may be a way to proceed," Malcolm replied.  
  
Pete tapped his hands on the table. “Right then, lets get up to the lever room and get started.”  
  
In the lever room, they were using video imaging equipment to try and contact the person who was literally ‘crackling’ with artron energy.  
  
“Where is he?” Rose asked Malcolm as she stood in front of the camera, looking at the blank video screen.  
  
"We’re not sure at the moment. Ah, it's the TARDIS, quick, try and lock it down." On the screen, Rose could see the familiar roundels of the TARDIS. Oh God she'd missed that ship.

 

She saw someone briefly on the screen. "DOCTOR!" she shouted, but the image was gone.

 

"Was that the red haired woman?" Chrissie asked. It had only been a fleeting glimpse.

 

"Recalibrating," Malcolm announced, "He's not on Earth, er, parallel Earth anyway, he seems to be in some sort of passenger transport vehicle which is shielded against some form of intense radiation.”  
  
“Can you open a channel to the on-board communication system?” she asked.  
  
“We are just establishing a carrier wave through the cannon now.” Malcolm walked over and looked at the video screen in front of Rose. “Ah, there we are, just a bit of fine tuning and….”  
  
The view of a small flight cabin appeared on the screen. Rose immediately recognised the back of the Doctor’s oh so fantastic sticky up hair.  
  
“DOCTOR! DOCTOR!” she called out.  
  
The image flickered and faded as they lost the lock on the signal. Rose looked desperately at her Dad.  
  
“That was him. He was there. Get him back, quick,” she pleaded.  
  
“I’m sorry Rose,” Malcolm said. “The intense radiation is interfering with the signal. We’ll have to wait until he leaves the planet so that we can get a stronger lock on him.”  
  
Rose had tears of disappointment stinging her eyes. “I was so close to talkin’ to him.”  
  
Pete came over and hugged her. “Don’t worry Sweetheart, we’ve proved it works. It’s only a matter of time before we have you two together again.”  
  
He wasn’t crazy about the idea of losing his new daughter, and he knew Jackie would be hell to live with for a long time. But Rose’s happiness was also important to him, and if that meant her moving to another universe to be with the man she loved, then so be it.  
  
"Okay everybody, go grab some lunch and then we can try again," Pete said.  
  
After lunch, the team reassembled back in the Lever Room. Malcolm was really excited about the search results from the cannon. The artron energy source was back on the alternate Earth, in London and was strong and stable.

 

“WHOP!”

 

Rose vanished in a flash of light. The ‘dream team’ were monitoring the phones data. After the first jump they had worked out how to stream data through the cannon by using the energy of the anomaly as a carrier wave and modulating the signal on top of it.

 

As the communication department lead, Chrissie was monitoring the incoming information.

 

“Director, Dr. Taylor, something’s wrong!” she called out.

 

Pete immediately thought of pulling Rose back. “What is it? Is Rose in danger?”

 

“No, nothing like that. It’s the time stamp on the web pages, they are from 2007, their calendar.”

 

“What! Are you sure? Is it archive data you’re accessing?” Malcolm asked as he came over to look at the screen.

 

“No, its real-time streaming, Rose has travelled into the past!”

 

“Fascinating! That’s an unexpected property of the dimension cannon; we will have to work out how to aim in time as well as space.”

 

Pete didn’t like the sound of this. ‘Unexpected’ when your daughter is in another dimension is not a good word.

 

“Is Rose okay? Will she be able to get back?” He asked Malcolm.

 

“Oh yes, she’s connected to us through the cannon. The return function will still work as designed.”

 

Chrissie cut in. “There’s a live news feed from ‘SKY NEWS’. It seems to be reporting on the star shaped alien ship attacking London. We know the Doctor was there, I think she may have hit the bullseye this time.”

 

“WHOP!” The room was filled with a flash of light and Rose ran forwards, tears running down her cheeks, she looked devastated.

 

“Dad?” She ran forwards towards Pete. He enveloped her in his arms.

 

“What is it Sweetheart? What’s the matter?”

 

Her breathing was erratic with sobs, she could hardly speak.

 

“He’s.... dead. The Doctor, he’s dead. It’s all wrong Dad, it’s all gone wrong over there.”

 

Pete shut down the project for the meantime while the ‘dream team’ worked on the time anomaly and how to navigate it, and Chrissie correlated the new data.

 

Rose had calmed down and was in Pete’s office with Mickey, giving a report. She was a S.O.U agent after all, and she put her emotions to one side while she recalled the events of her mission.

 

“She was there again, the red head. She said her name was Donna, I didn’t get her last name.”

 

“Good work agent Tyler,” Pete said with a proud smile.

  
“There was something else Dad. She had something on her back. I couldn’t see it when I looked at it, but it was there when you glanced away. I’ve seen something like it before; the Doctor called it a perception filter.”

 


	11. When a right turn is a wrong turn

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The events from the episode 'Turn Left' and the start of 'The Stolen Earth' as seen from Pete's world.

 

** Chapter Eleven **

 

 

“We’ve found her!” Chrissie announced to the team leader meeting in the conference room a week later. “While the physics guys were working on the time travel, I was surfing their 3G network via the cannon. I checked all the news footage of the alien ‘fat’ babies and the star shaped ship. I ran everything through the facial recognition software and it found her on a social network.”

 

Chrissie turned her laptop around on the table to show the face of the mystery woman. “Ladies and gentlemen may I introduce, Donna Noble. In this timeline she has no artron energy and works as a secretary for Chowdry Photocopiers.”

 

“Great work Chrissie,” Pete said. “Now we can track her on the other side. Malcolm any advances on the time travel control?”

 

“Yes Director! We called in Professor Hawking and his team, and we can now navigate through time,” he announced.

 

“Okay, so where do we go from here? The world over there is falling apart without the Doctor. Rose believes that something alien as attached itself to this Donna Noble and is altering the timeline.” Pete looked around the table. Rose was looking out the large window, watching a contrail inch it’s way across the sky. Then half inch, then quarter inch, then eighth, sixteenth and so on, until it stopped. The sky had a golden hue.

 

She was inside St Pauls church.

 

“But it's not fair,” she protested, tears filling her eyes.

 

Pete stroked her cheek. “I've had all these extra hours. No one else in the world has ever had that. And on top of that, I got to see you. And you're beautiful. How lucky am I, eh? So, come on, do as your dad says. You going to be there for me, love? Thanks for saving me.”

 

He ran out of the church, down the street and into the path of the oncoming car.

 

“Rose?” Pete called her name, it was distant, an echo. She was startled back into the room. Suddenly she understood everything; it was one of those moments that the Doctor had all the time.

 

“Dad, I know what’s going on and I know what I’ve got to do,” she told him.

 

There were murmurings from the scientists in the room, but Pete leapt to her defence.

 

“Hands up anyone in the room who’s been a time traveller,” he said.

 

Rose and Mickey raised their hands. “I reckon that makes them the most experienced people here.” Pete smiled and nodded at Rose. “What you got for us Sweetheart?”

 

“Okay, there are a number of things we have to achieve. We have to get the Doctor unkilled. To do that we have to get Donna Noble to change the time line.”

 

Captain McNab interrupted. “Woah, that’s a leap faith, how can you know that?” he asked.

 

“Donna should be the new travelling companion of the Doctor. She has a perception filtered alien on her back. You don’t pick them up in your local supermarket; you get them on an alien planet travelling with a Time Lord.” McNab raised an eyebrow, he wasn’t convinced.

 

“Why can’t we just go back an’ do it ourselves?” Mickey asked her.

 

“Because messin’ with history can destroy it, and can cause reality to collapse. Trust me, I’ve tried it. The Doctor told me there are fixed points in time and fluxed points.” Rose grinned at a memory.

 

“I thought he said fuc.... Never mind. Fixed points happen to you without your knowledge, like running in front of a car because you are late and you don’t look.” Pete shot her a look; he remembered what Mickey had told him about her original father.

 

“Fluxing points allow you to make a choice; you can stand on the pavement and wait for the car to pass. Whatever this thing is on her back, it’s changing Donna’s choices and feeding off the resulting artron energy.”

 

Rose looked at Chrissie. “What happens on Christmas day 2008 in this new timeline?”

 

“Chrissie checked her data. “The alien passenger ship crashes into London and explodes killing millions, including Donna Noble and her family.”

 

“We have to get her out of London, she has to live. Can the Psychology Department come up with a way that will entice them away?” She asked. One of the psychologists nodded.

 

“Finally we have to find out which decision was changed, and get Donna to change it back. I can give her a message for the Doctor before she changes the timeline so that he will come back to Earth. It will be sometime before the alien star appeared, as she had artron energy then and she doesn’t now.”

 

Dr. Stansfield  spoke up. “When we were studying the navigation of the timeline, we noticed that time and reality seemed to be bending around an individual. It appears Donna Noble is that individual. If we wind up the power and increase the resolution we may be able to see where the distortion originates.”

 

“Okay people, we have tasks to perform, lets get to it and form a plan. All departments report back to me and I’ll convene another meeting when we have all the answers.”

 

The psychologists worked out that if they rigged a Christmas raffle so that Donna won it, she could win a weekend break to treat her family to Christmas in a luxury hotel.

 

The Computer Sciences department spent a couple of days working with the physicist in the lever room, tracking Donna through her life leading up to Christmas 2007.

 

The superconducting electromagnets whined in protest as the power and frequency were wound to maximum to increase the resolution of the scan.

Pete and Rose were called to the lever room to view the results.

 

“We think we’ve found the point where the decision changed which caused her to miss meeting the Doctor,” Roger said as he started the video on the large flat screen. A blue car could be seen driving down Little Sutton Street and approach the ‘T’ junction with Ealing Road.

 

“There, see? Donna’s car is positioned at the junction to turn left towards Chiswick High Road, with the left indicator flashing.” They moved closer for a better look.

 

“Now the right indicator flashes and the car turns right towards Griffin's Parade. Did you notice the ripple?” Roger asked with a grin.

 

 

“What ripple?” Pete and Rose asked.

 

Roger rewound and played it back one frame at a time. On one frame, a small bubble appeared above the driver’s side of the roof. As the frames advanced, a faint circular ripple moved outwards from the car.

 

“That, is the alternate timeline spreading out from Donna Noble. All we have to do is prevent her from turning right,” Roger announced.

 

Once again, Rose immediately knew what she had to do, and it made her feel sick.

 

“Oh God no!” she groaned, her eyes glistening with tears.

 

“Rose? What’s the matter?” Pete asked her with concern.

 

“How does the Doctor live with himself making these decisions? Dad, this new Donna has to die for the old Donna to change her mind.” Tears were rolling down her cheeks. “They can’t meet; it will cause a paradox if they do. And.... I’ve seen someone die before to stop a paradox.”

 

“It was your real Dad, wasn’t it? Mickey told me a while ago.”

 

Pete pulled her into a hug as she wept into his shoulder. “Look Sweetheart, if she is a companion of the Doctor, and if she’s anything like you, if you give her the facts I’m betting she’ll make the decision herself.”

 

Rose looked up at Pete and wiped her eyes. “I can give her the choice! Oh Dad that’s brilliant. I was dreading the thought of tricking her into being killed.” She kissed him on the cheek.

 

When all the data was in, Pete called a planning meeting and all the departments brainstormed into the night until all the pieces fell into place.

 

The personality profiler suggested the method to ensure Donna cooperated with the plan, without her knowing she was being manipulated. Rose didn’t like the idea of manipulating Donna but knew it was necessary, they couldn’t take the risk of her taking a random action.

 

They couldn’t take her out of her current timeline with the dimension cannon, as that would risk the collapsing of all timelines. The ‘dream team’ gave Rose some blueprints that the other UNIT would be able to use to build a time machine, powered by the dead Doctor’s TARDIS.

 

Rose knew how Donna would make her decision to save the universes, and Special Operations helped her to work out the time and distances involved.

 

 

+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

 

 

‘WHOP!”

 

Rose ran into the lever room with a flash of light.

 

“Blimey! When are you guys goin’ to fix that inertia problem?” she asked as she skidded to a halt.

 

“We’re working on it, but changing one of Newton’s laws isn’t that easy,” Roger told her.

 

“How’d it go Sweetheart?” Pete asked her.

 

“Okay I think. I’ve given her the idea of going away to Firbourne House for Christmas.” She turned to Dr. Stansfield. “How long before the cannon is ready for the jump to Leeds?”

 

“We are calibrating the cannon for 2009 and setting the coordinates. We should be good to go in about 45 minutes. Go and grab a coffee and a sandwich and it should be ready when you get back,” he announced.

 

Rose jumped into Leeds in 2009 as the Sontarans tried to invade. As the sky burned, she explained to Donna how Torchwood sacrificed themselves to save the Earth when it should have been the Doctor. She told Donna she would be back in three weeks.

 

Kate Stewart, the Head of Scientific Research at UNIT, was in the Operations Room of UNIT headquarters, under the remains of the Tower of London, when her mobile phone rang. She took it out of her jacket pocket, and looked at the display, which said ‘TORCHWOOD’. There had to be a mistake, Torchwood no longer existed, Torchwood One had been devastated by the Dalek, Cybermen battle in 2007, and Jack Harkness’s team had recently perished in the Atmos incident.

 

“Osgood, put a trace on this call,” she called to her personal assistant, before answering the call. “Hello?”

 

“Kate Stewart? I need your help,” a young woman said.

 

“How did you get my number, its unlisted and confidential, it doesn’t exist.”

 

“We have a mutual acquaintance,” the caller said, and then corrected herself. “Had a mutual acquaintance.”

 

“Oh, and who’s that then?”

 

“A man from Gallifrey.”

 

“Ma’am, I’ve triangulated a lock on the caller,” Osgood told her.

 

[‘Where is she?’] She mouthed to her.

 

“Oh, and by the way, I’m in the courtyard above you,” the caller said.

 

Kate walked towards the young, blonde woman, accompanied by two soldiers carrying rifles. When she saw her, she didn’t believe it was Rose Tyler, she’d died in 2007, at the battle of Canary Wharf.

 

She held out her hand. “Kate Stewart,” she said in greeting. “And you look like Rose Tyler, but you can’t be, because you are on the list of the dead from Canary Wharf.”

 

Rose shook the offered hand. “I need you to believe me, and I need you to trust me if you want to put all this right,” she said, waving her arms at the scaffolding around the damaged Tower, and getting straight to the point.

 

“I’m listening, but firstly, how do I know you are actually Rose Tyler? Which Doctor did you travel with?” she asked as a test.

 

Rose smiled, she liked this woman; she was smart. “There is only one Doctor…, he may change his appearance, and his demeanour, but it’s the same person.”

 

“Yes, sorry, I mean what did he look like when you travelled with him.”

 

“I first met him when he had short black hair, big ears, and a big daft smile,” she said with a wistful smile. “He blew up the shop that I worked in…, remember the Autons? That was us, as was the Slitheen at Downing Street; he blew that up as well.”

 

Kate laughed. “Yes, I remember that, he certainly liked blowing things up.”

 

“And then he changed one Christmas; that was the Sycorax invasion. He was taller, thinner, with a cute smile, and sticky up hair…, great, sticky up hair. At the battle of Canary Wharf, I helped him open the breach, and suck all the Daleks and Cybermen into the Void, the dead space between universes. Unfortunately, I got stuck on the other side of the breach in a parallel universe.”

 

Kate looked at the woman in front of her and saw the look in her eyes; this young woman had been in love with the Doctor.

 

“That’s why you were listed as missing, presumed dead. And now you’ve come back?”

 

“Yes, because the breach is opening again, and from the other universe, I could see this one, and the Doctor was alive. But something happened, a woman he was meant to travel with, changed her mind, and reality changed with her. None of this was supposed to happen, the Adipose, the Titanic, the Sontarans.”

 

Kate was convinced that this was Rose Tyler, she knew too much about the Doctor. “Can you change it back?”

 

“Yes, but I’ll need UNIT’s help. Can you take me to the TARDIS?”

 

“What makes you think we have the TARDIS?” she asked suspiciously.

 

“Kate, I could have gone to the Black Archive without you, but I need a team to help me…, also, you haven’t been able to get inside, have you?”

 

Kate was shocked, how did Rose know about the Black Archive? She couldn't possibly remember having been there. When she had recovered from the initial shock, she shook her head. “No, it defies all attempts at entry.”

 

Rose reached inside her plum coloured top, and pulled out a chain with a key on it. “Would you like to see inside? ‘Cos I’ve got a key.”

 

“You’d better come with me,” Kate said.

 

Kate took Rose into the ruined Tower of London, which was still in the process of being rebuilt after the Titanic spaceship had crashed onto Buckingham Palace last Christmas. She took her down into the bomb proof sub basement of UNIT. They made their way along a dimly lit corridor, to a door, where a man sat at a desk.

 

“Ma'am,” the man said, standing up to greet them.

 

Kate handed him her key. “Atkins, isn't it, how’s your first day on the job?”

 

“Oh, very good ma'am, quiet, but it gives me chance to read all the policies and procedures.”

 

“Very good Atkins, carry on.”

 

He opened the door, and they walked inside the most secret room on the planet. On one wall, was a board, covered with photographs of people who had visited the gallery in the past.

 

“Oh look, Sarah Jane, she’s been here,” Rose said. “Hang on, that’s me…, in here, with you. When was that taken?”

 

“Let me see,” she said as she took the photo down and looked at the back. “Er, April 2007…, I think you said you were staying over with your mother, while the Doctor infiltrated a school.”

 

“Oh my God, that was Deffry Vale High School, and the Krillitane.”

 

“Yes, that was it; the corridor erases your memory when you leave this place. Atkins has been having his first day at work for ten years now. By the way, I hope you don’t mind me asking, but…, your mother was on the list of the missing presumed dead,” Kate said with concern.

 

“She’s with me, and Mickey Smith, we’re in the parallel universe.”

 

“Oh, that’s a relief,” she said as she pinned the photograph back on the board. “Come on, this way.”

 

Rose followed her to a dark room, where she flicked a switch and a spotlight illuminated the doors of a blue wooden box. Rose’s hand covered her mouth as she gasped at the sight of the TARDIS.

 

“Oh girl…, what’s happened to you?” She had tears in her eyes as she walked forwards and hesitantly reached out to touch the wooden exterior. A dim light glowed behind the windows, and the lamp on top also tried to illuminate.

 

“That’s the first sign that the TARDIS is still working since we brought it here,” Kate told her.

 

Rose could feel the TARDIS’s sadness and grief. “We’re mourning the loss of our Time Lord.”

 

She put the key in the lock and turned it, pushing the door open and stepping into the dim interior. Kate followed her inside and walked up the ramp behind her.

 

Rose gently stroked the console. “Hello old girl, how have you been?” The roundels glowed in greeting, and she leaned across to stroke the time rotor. There was a stuttering wheeze, as it tried to pump up and down.

 

Kate stood by her side. “Rose, you said you could change this, what did you mean?”

 

“The woman who was supposed to save him, her name is Donna Noble, and she has a perception filtered alien creature on her back, which is making her change her choices. We think it's feeding on the infinite potential energy that gets left behind.”

 

“And what do you need from UNIT?”

 

Rose reached inside her jacket, and took out an A4 plastic wallet of papers. “These are blueprints for a time machine, drawn up by Malcolm Taylor and the Torchwood team. It will be powered by the TARDIS, and we need your Malcolm to build it.”

 

Kate glanced over the papers in the folder. “Right, I think I'll get Captain Magambo to oversee the movement of the TARDIS to…”

 

“A secure warehouse in Canning Town,” Rose finished for her, as she started down the ramp to the doors. “It will take Malcolm three weeks to complete the work, and then Donna Noble will accompany me to change her time line.”

 

Kate looked stunned; this remarkable woman really was the Doctor’s companion.

 

Rose closed the door, and stroked the wood. “Like I said, from the other universe, we can see your future…, up to a point.”

 

“And what point is that?” Kate asked.

 

“Be careful when you move her,” Rose said, ignoring Kate’s question. “She’s fragile now that she’s lost the Doctor. Oh, and Malcolm will need this.” She took the key from around her neck and held the chain out in front of her; gently dropping it into Kate's cupped hands.

  
Kate looked at the ordinary Yale key, as though it was the most precious jewel on Earth. She was going to say thank you to Rose, but when she looked up, Kate was alone.

 

“Okay, everything is in place for the final phase,” she told the team as she returned from the visit to UNIT. “Oh, and thanks for fixing the inertia.”

 

“What message are you going to give her for the Doctor?” Pete asked her.

 

“Oh, it’s only two words really, but they travel well through time and space,” she told him with an air of mystery.

 


	12. Secrets and lies

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jackie, Rose and the 'other Doctor' arrive on that beach again.

 

** Chapter Twelve **

 

 

** Four years, three months after arriving in Pete’s world **

 

 

Pete was sat in the lounge with his son on his lap, reading him ‘The Cat In The Hat’, showing him the pictures and doing the voices of the characters. Tony had heard it many times before but always giggled when his Dad read the funny bits.

 

Jackie sat and watched them with a smile and a warm feeling in her heart. Who would have thought four years ago that she would be living in a posh mansion with the man she had always loved and her beautiful children. Sometimes she felt she had to pinch herself to believe it was real.

 

As Pete finished the story, Tony yawned.

 

“Come on then young man, time to get you to bed,” he cooed at him.

 

“Okay Daddy.” Pete picked him up and walked over to Jackie, tipping Tony downwards so that she could kiss him.

 

“Night night soldier,” she said, kissing his cheek.

 

“Night night Mummy.” As Pete carried him out the door, he shouted. “Night night Rosie.”

 

Rose came down the hallway from the kitchen with a mug of tea. “G’night lil’ bro’” she said, kissing his head as he went past. She went into the lounge to watch some TV with her Mum.

 

Rose could sense that her Mum wanted to talk to her about something but was reluctant to start the conversation. Rose opened the conversation for her.

 

“You alright Mum? I know all the stars goin’ out is a bit worryin’, but we’ll sort it,” she reassured her.

 

“I know Sweetheart, your Dad’s been tellin’ me about the woman who’s with the Doctor.” Jackie paused and then continued. “It’s nice to know he’s moved on and found someone new.”

 

Rose gave her a look that would melt steel. “MUM! He hasn’t ‘moved on’! She just travels with him, like Sarah Jane used to. He would never ‘move on’ from me, we promised each other forever, and we meant it.”

 

Jackie tried to look innocent. “And tomorrow you’ll try an’ find him so that he can save the universe.”

 

“That’s right, he’s the only person who stands a chance of saving us.”

 

“And what happens then, when he’s saved us? Are you comin’ home or are you goin’ to break your brother’s heart and never come back?” Jackie was trying to play the guilt card. “You know he adores you.”

 

“How dare you Mum! That’s not fair. You know I love all of you so much. I look at Tony and I think about the darkness that’s nearly on us and it breaks my heart to think about what will happen if I fail. But I love the Doctor Mum, just like you love Dad, and you took the opportunity to be with him, didn’t you?”

 

“Yeah, but don’t you remember that I was prepared to give him up to stay with you?” She was recalling the day at Canary Wharf when the Doctor sent them all through the void to this world.

 

“Well I’m not prepared to give him up Mum. Like I said I made a promise, and I intend to keep it.” Rose finished her tea and stood up. “I’m going to bed. I’ve got a big day tomorrow.” She stopped at the door and turned around. “Mum, I love you, and Dad, and Tony, and I always will, but if I don’t do this, then what’s the point of saving the universe? It won’t be worth livin’ in without him.” She turned around and closed the door.

 

The next day, Pete took Rose to Torchwood after a tearful goodbye with Jackie. Mickey was having a ‘lie in’ after covering a night shift in the lever room. He was there in case anything ‘kicked off’ over in his world that needed a S.O.U agent to intervene.

 

Jackie got Tony ready for the pre school nursery and then drove him there in her Audi. Inside the nursery she gave him a big hug and kiss with tears in her eyes.

 

“Why are you crying Mummy?” Tony asked her, looking upset.

 

“Oh don’t you worry love, I’m just bein’ silly. Your big sister’s doin’ somethin’ important today and I’m goin’ to make sure she gets home safe. It might be Daddy pickin’ you up when you finish, Okay?”

 

“Okay,” he said with a sing-song voice as he ran to meet with his friends.

 

Rose was in the lever room with a transporter button inside her jacket. The psychologists had told her a while back to wear the same clothes so that Donna would easily recognise her and wouldn’t get freaked out by her clothes changing every five minutes.

 

‘WHOP!’ she disappeared.

 

Half an hour later she reappeared looking distraught and tearful. Pete came over and hugged her, he thought this might happen.

 

“Are you alright Sweetheart?” he asked her.

 

“No,” she answered truthfully. “But I will be. My head tells me that it’s for the greater good and that she won’t really have died when the timeline corrects itself, but my heart tells me I’ve just seen one of the bravest women I know kill herself to save us.”

 

They walked over to Chrissie Anderson, who was surfing the alternate internet.

 

“I’m just checking the news feeds to see what’s happening,” she told them.

 

“And?” Pete asked, looking at the screen.

 

Chrissie had a beaming smile that told them everything. “London is a busy, teeming metropolis. It worked! I’ll be damned, it actually worked.”

 

Everyone cheered and whooped. They were high fiving and hugging. Pete picked Rose up off the floor in a hug and spun her around. Andy McNab moved over to the Special Operations console.

 

“Okay people, stay sharp. We need to know the instant we get an artron energy signature,” he announced.

 

 

+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

 

 

Jackie returned from the nursery and immediately went up to Mickey’s room. She knocked on the door.

 

“Mickey? I need a favour, I need your help.”

 

“Urrgh, is that you Jackie,” his sleepy voice came through the door.

 

“No, it’s the Queen of Sheba,” she replied sarcastically. She couldn’t help herself. “Of course it’s me you dope.”

 

“Okay, put the kettle on, I’ll be down in a minute,” he yawned back at her.

 

Ten minutes later, He was nursing a strong mug of coffee to wake him up. “So, what can I do for ya then?”

 

“Well, you know that Rose is goin’ to find the Doctor today to stop the darkness?”

 

“Yeah, we find out today if it was all worth it or not. What’s that got to do with me helpin’ ya?” Mickey asked her, he was still a bit foggy from being woken up.

 

“Well, once she finds ‘im, she ain’t gonna come back. I have to go and ask ‘im to send her back like he did before. I need you to get me over to the other side.”

 

Mickey looked at her dumbfounded. He was awake now.

 

“An’ what does Pete think about this?” he asked her, already expecting the answer.

 

“Pete doesn’t know, and he can’t know. He would never let me go, but I can’t just sit back and lose Rose. You’ve got to help me Mickey. Please.” Mickey could see tears forming in her eyes. He had grown really close to Jackie over the years, since Rose had been off travelling.

 

“I know I’m goin’ to regret this, but okay, I’ll help ya, but you’ve got to do exactly as I say. If I let anythin’ happen to you, Pete ’ll kill me.”

 

 

+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

 

 

Back in the lever room, the scanning team located the TARDIS by its energy signature. Rose prepared herself for what she expected to be her final jump out of this world. She stood in front of Pete and just looked into his eyes.

 

“So Dad, this is it then. If this goes right, I’ll be back with him.” She lunged at him and hugged him hard. “I love you so much. Thanks for everything you’ve done for me and Mum.” Her eyes were glistening. “Dad, every night you put Tony to bed, give him a kiss for me and tell him I love him.”

 

Rose released the hug, sniffed and wiped her eyes. She straightened herself and stood tall and proud. “Okay, I’m ready.” She stood by the white wall, prepared for her final journey.

 

“ABORT! ABORT! We’ve lost telemetry,” one of the technicians called out.

 

“All teams check your data, we need to re-establish the connection,” Roger told them. Malcolm got onto a terminal and started checking the logs.

 

“I’ve got a trace on the last known location of the TARDIS, but the TARDIS has gone.” Malcolm’s brow furrowed. “What in God’s name? The Earth has been moved!”

 

“What!?” Pete and Rose said together.

 

“I don’t understand how, but something or someone has relocated the Earth. Think of the energy required to do that! This is beyond anything I have ever even imagined.” Malcolm had visibly paled.

 

“Rose, you’d better get down to the armoury and get yourself a very big gun,” Pete told her. “I’m going to call in some reinforcements.”

 

Mickey was driving through London with Jackie when his mobile announced that he had a text message. He pulled over to read it.

 

“Uh-oh, it’s kickin’ off on the other side. Pete’s callin’ in the troops.”

 

“Is Rose alright?” Jackie asked him with concern.

 

“Dunno, we’d better get over there quick.” He pulled back into traffic and headed for Torchwood.

 

 

+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

 

 

Rose came into the lever room with a plasma rifle slung over her shoulder. Malcolm and his team had been collating data.

 

“The Earth is thousands of light-years from where it used to be. We can use the dimensional cannon, but the aim might be off a bit. We’ll get you as close as we can to the Noble family. They are your best bet to finding Donna and the Doctor,” Malcolm said.

 

“Okay, power it up, I’m ready. Bye Dad, I love you.” Rose gave him her best smile, the one that lit up a room.

 

“Bye Sweetheart, good luck.”

 

‘WHOP!’ Rose vanished in a flash of light.

 

Mickey pulled into the underground car park and reversed into his S.O.U parking space.

 

“You wait here and I’ll go an’ find out what’s goin’ on,” He told Jackie. “ I’ve got an idea that’ll get us a ride to the other side.” He opened the car door to climb out.

 

“Mickey, would you put this letter on Pete’s desk for me? You can text him before we go to tell ‘im it’s there.” She handed him a blue envelope. He nodded and headed for the lift that would take him to the top floor.

 

He made sure no one was about before sneaking into Pete’s office and putting the letter in the middle of his desk where he couldn’t miss it. He then walked across the corridor and entered the lever room.

 

“Control, I need another shift. Lock me onto the TARDIS, now. Right, I'm going to find him. Wish me luck,” Rose said over the phone link.

 

‘Good luck Sweetheart’, Pete thought as he turned to see Mickey enter the room.

 

“Hey Boss, what’s occurring?” he said conversationally to Pete. Pete gave him a run down on the morning’s events and explained that Rose had gone over on her own.

 

“They moved the Earth!? That’s some serious shit Pete. I want to be her backup, I can take.... Jake with me,” he lied. He hated lying to his friend. “He’s down in S.O.U, I’ll go get a plasma rifle and we can jump in from down there if you give me the buttons.”

 

“These are the only ones we’ve got, so you’ll be on your own over there,” Pete told him.

 

“Understood.” Mickey held out his hand and Pete shook it. “I’ll keep her safe. See ya around Boss.” With that he turned around and headed towards the door.

 

Malcolm called after him. “Our aim might be off a bit; we’re still trying to compensate for the immense distances involved.”

 

“I’ll keep that in mind,” he said as he left the room.

 

Pete thought about what Mickey had said, ‘see you around’. It was if he was intending not to come back. Whilst he was contemplating this, his phone announced that he had received a text message.

 

“Two dimensional jumps have just been logged by the scanners,” a technician reported.

 

Pete took out his phone and read the text. ‘On your desk’ is all it said.

 

Pete frowned at the message. ‘What the hell does that mean’? He went across to his office and saw the blue envelope on his desk. It said ‘PETE’ on the front in Jackie’s handwriting. A feeling of dread started to enter his mind. With trembling hands he opened the envelope and read the letter.

 

‘My love, my Pete. Please don’t be angry with me, and certainly don’t be angry with Mickey. I made him do it; you know what a bully I can be when I want my own way. As you know, Rose has gone to find the Doctor to fix the darkness. What you might not know is she intends to stay there with him.’ Pete started to feel sick.

 

‘I can’t stand by and let her do that to us. After I lost you all those years ago, bringing her up was the only thing that kept me going, she was my life, she still is along with you and Tony. I’m going to ask the Doctor to send her back to us. I know I bad-mouth him, but that’s just banter. He is a decent man who does right by people, he sent Rose back to me before, and I think he’ll do it again. Mickey has promised to protect me and make sure that I get back home safe. I love you, always have, always will. Jacks. P.S Tony finishes nursery at 1:00 pm’.

 

Pete read the letter again, trying to comprehend what she was saying. He picked up the internal phone and called security.

 

“Mickey Smith was in here recently, can you trace his ID badge?” he asked the security officer.

 

“Yes Director. He came in through the car park, went to your office, went to the lever room, went to the armoury, and then back to the car park.”

 

“And at anytime was Jake Simmonds with him?” There was a pause.

 

“No sir, Jake Simmonds left the building at 07:00 after his shift and hasn’t returned. Pete put down the phone.

  
“Shit! Shit, shit, shit. Jacks, what have you done?”

 

Pete picked up his son from the nursery at 1:00 pm. He had painted a picture of a big house with four stick people that were Mummy, Daddy, Rosie and Tony. He proudly showed it to his Dad.

 

Pete forced a smile onto his face. “Oh that’s brilliant Tony. We’ll give it pride of place on the fridge,” he told him.

 

“Is Mummy back yet?” Tony asked him.

 

“No, not yet. What did Mummy tell you?”

 

“She said Rosie was doing something in-sport-tents and was going to bring her home,” he tried to remember.

 

“Okay, let’s go home and wait for them, yeah?” Pete picked him up, carried him to the car and strapped him into the child seat.

 

At home, the cook made them some sandwiches as Pete put on a children’s channel on the TV. It was one of those programs that taught kids without them realising they were learning, hosted by puppets with attitude.

 

Pete kept checking his mobile phone to make sure he had got a signal and that he hadn’t missed a call, which he hadn’t. He went to his home office and logged into Torchwood to keep an eye on what was happening. There had been no word from the other side since Rose had jumped.

 

It was killing him. He didn’t know if they were alive or dead, in danger or having a celebratory pint in the local pub. He checked news feeds for updated reports on the darkness. It was still coming.

 

The first news he got was late afternoon, while he and Tony were eating fish and chips, beautifully prepared by the cook. His mobile phone, which he had on the table, started to ring. He picked it up on the first ring.

 

“Pete Tyler, what you got?” he said without any preamble.   

 

“Er, Director Tyler, it’s Malcolm. I thought you would like to know as soon as possible that the ‘other’ Earth is back in its orbit around the sun. It appears that Rose’s faith in the Doctor was well founded; all the stars and galaxies are also back to normal. It’s quite remarkable.”

 

“Any news on my family Malcolm?” Pete asked urgently.

 

“I’m afraid not. The universes are closing off and the cannon no longer has enough power to transfer matter. I’m sorry Peter, but unless the Doctor can do something, they are stuck there.”

 

Pete’s heart sank. He had a horrible knot in his stomach. He looked across the table at his son who was picking up a chip with his fork and putting it whole in his mouth. “Thanks Malcolm. Keep looking for me, I’ll see you tomorrow for a full debrief.” He hung up the call and put his phone back on the table.

 

“Is Mummy coming back?” Tony asked his Dad as he swallowed the chip.

 

“Soon, I hope. Soon.” He saw the look of disappointment on his son’s face.

 

“How’s about some ice cream for dessert?” he asked him as a distraction.

 

His eyes went wide with pleasure. “Yay, ice cream.”

 

After calling Margaret, the cook on his earpiece intercom, a bowl of strawberry and vanilla ice cream was brought in. Tony was eagerly devouring it when Pete’s phone started playing Tom Jones’ version of ‘Sex Bomb’.

 

Tony giggled. “That’s Mummy’s tune.”

 

He was right, it was the personalised ring tone for Jackie. He grabbed the phone and fumbled with the buttons, his fingers didn’t work properly he was so nervous.

 

“JACKS! JACKS, is that you?”

 

“Pete, we’re back. We’re all okay,” she told him.

 

“Oh thank God.” He was so relieved, but his relief turned to annoyance.

 

“What the hell were you thinkin’ Jacks? Don’t you ever do that again. I’ve been off my head with worry.”

 

“I’m sorry Pete, but I had to bring her back.” He could hear that she was becoming tearful.

 

“And did the Doctor send her back?” he asked her.

 

“Oh, you have no idea. He’s outdone ‘imself this time. To be honest, I think he’s just showin’ off now.”

 

Pete was about to ask her what she meant when Tony started pulling his arm.

 

“Is that Mummy? Want to talk to Mummy.” Pete handed him the phone.

 

“Hello, Mummy. Did you get Rosie? Are you coming home? I painted you a picture.” He babbled on, excited that his mother was back. After a little chat he handed the phone back to his Dad.

 

“Is Rose alright?” Pete asked.

 

“I’d let her speak to ya, but her tongue is otherwise engaged,” she said with a laugh. “Any chance of a lift home love?”

 

“Where are you?” he asked her, slightly baffled by her comment about Rose’s tongue.

 

“Norway, on that bleedin’ beach again!” Pete could actually hear her rolling her eyes.

 

“Okay Jacks, stay put and I’ll come and get you in the airship.” They said their goodbyes and hung up. Pete’s phone rang again.

 

“Director Tyler, its Malcolm. We have detected an artron energy signature that matches the TARDIS. It’s on....”

 

“A beach in Norway, about 50 miles south of Bergen,” Pete finished for him. “Thanks Malcolm, I’m on my way.” He ended the call and then dialled the pilot of the Vitex private airship.

 

“Jamie, I need you to prep the ship for a flight to Norway. Can you log a flight plan to a beach, 50 miles south of Bergen?” The pilot confirmed that he would get right on it and Pete hung up.

 

“C’mon Tony, get your shoes on, we’re going on the airship to fetch Mummy, Rosie and Mickey.” Tony squealed with delight. He wished Mummy would go away and come back more often. Ice cream and a flight in the airship all in one day, if he had any more excitement he might wet himself.

 


	13. Parting is such sweet sorrow

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pete and Tony fly to Norway,and Pete has a few questions that need answering.

 

** Chapter Thirteen **

 

 

“Oh, fat lot of good this is,” Jackie complained as she stepped out of the TARDIS. “Back of beyond... Bloody Norway? I'm going to have to phone your father, he's on the nursery run.”

 

Rose smiled at her mum; didn’t she know that her phone wouldn’t work across different universes? If it did, she’d have been on the phone continually to the Doctor over the last four years. The Metacrisis Doctor stepped out behind them and looked around.

 

“I was pregnant, do you remember? Had a baby boy,” Jackie said to him, not even considering that he wasn’t the original Doctor.

 

“Oh, brilliant. What did you call him?”

 

“Doctor,” she said with a smile.

 

The Metacrisis Doctor looked at her in wonder, what an honour. “Really?” he asked.

 

Jackie smiled, he was an easy target. “No, you plum. He's called Tony.”

 

The Doctor and Donna stepped out of the TARDIS, as Rose looked around suspiciously, something wasn’t right.

 

“Hold on, this is the parallel universe, right?” she asked.

 

“You're back home,” he told her.

 

“And the walls of the world are closing again, now that the Reality Bomb never happened. It's dimensional retroclosure. See, I really get that stuff now,” Donna said.

 

“No, but I spent all that time trying to find you. I'm not going back now,” Rose said defiantly.

 

“But you've got to,” he told her, his hearts breaking at what he was doing. “Because we saved the universe, but at a cost, and the cost is him... He destroyed the Daleks, he committed genocide. He's too dangerous to be left on his own,” he said.

 

“You made me,” the Metacrisis Doctor said accusingly.

 

Thoughts of a previous regeneration entered his head, an old renegade warrior with a posh, gravelly voice. “Exactly, you were born in battle, full of blood and anger and revenge.”

 

He looked at Rose. “Remind you of someone? That's me, when we first met, and you made me better, now you can do the same for him.”

 

“But he's not you,” she protested. Ah, she didn’t believe it. Come on Rose, you’re smart, work it out…, please, he thought.

 

“He needs you,” he told her. ‘I need you’, he thought. “That's very me.”

 

Donna could see that Rose hadn’t realised what the Doctor was offering her. “But it's better than that, though. Don't you see what he's trying to give you?” She looked over to the Metacrisis Doctor. “Tell her…, Go on.”

 

This was his chance, he had to convince his love that he was still…, well, him! He was still the man she had fallen in love with. “I look like him and I think like him. Same memories, same thoughts, same everything. Except, I've only got one heart.”

 

“Which means?” Rose asked, unsure of where this conversation was going.

 

“I'm part human. Specifically, the aging part. I'll grow old and never regenerate. I've only got one life, Rose Tyler. I could spend it with you, if you want.”

 

'If I want?' Rose thought, of course she wanted. That was the whole reason for coming back. “You'll grow old at the same time as me?” She asked,

 

“Together.”

 

She hesitantly put her hand on his chest and felt the ‘lub-dub’ of his single, human heart. ‘Oh God, its true’, she thought. She was suddenly reminded of an argument they had once had.

 

[‘I don't age, I regenerate. But humans decay, you wither and you die. Imagine watching that happen to someone who you...’] She wondered then how he was going to end that sentence, and now she knew.

 

“Oh, and don't forget this,” the Doctor said, as he reached into his pocket and threw them a chunk of TARDIS coral.

 

“This universe is in need of defending…, chunk of TARDIS, grow your own.”

 

“But that takes thousands of years,” the Metacrisis Doctor said with a frown.

 

“No, because…” the Doctor started to say, when Donna interrupted him.

 

“...if you shatterfry the plasmic shell and modify the dimensional stabiliser to a foldback harmonic of thirty six point three, you accelerate growth by the power of fifty nine,” she said, looking at them as though they had dribbled down their suits.

 

“We never thought of that!” they said together.

 

“I'm just brilliant!” she replied with a grin.

 

“The Doctor…, in the TARDIS, with Rose Tyler, just as it should be,” the Doctor said, calling the Metacrisis Doctor by his own title, to try and convince Rose that they were the same…, well nearly the same.

 

“But... what about you?” Rose asked in concern, she knew that he loved her, and that he had missed her.

 

“Oh, I'm fine, I've got madam,” he said, nodding his head to Donna standing behind him.

  
“Human with a Time Lord brain, perfect combination! We can travel the universe forever... Best friends! And equals, just what old skinny boy needs, an equal!” Donna said with a smile.

 

They heard the TARDIS time rotor rumble behind them.

 

“We've got to go. This reality is sealing itself off for ever,” the Doctor said.

 

“But, it's still not right, because the Doctor's still you,” she protested.

 

“And I'm him,” the Doctor said, nodding at the Metacrisis Doctor.

 

Oh, this is ridiculous, there can’t be two of the same person…, could there? And then she thought of a way of finding out, she stood between them. “All right. Both of you, answer me this. When I last stood on this beach, on the worst day of my life, what was the last thing you said to me? Go on, say it.”

 

Oh she was smart, ‘my brilliant Rose Tyler’,  the Doctor thought. “I said, Rose Tyler.”

 

“Yeah, and how was that sentence going to end?” she asked him, challenging him to profess his love for her.

 

He knew what she was waiting to hear, and he SO wanted to tell her, but if he did, then he knew that she wouldn’t have the fantastic, normal life that she deserved. “Does it need saying?”

 

She turned to the Metacrisis Doctor. “And you, Doctor? What was the end of that sentence?”

 

So this was it, the Doctor had given him the opportunity to steal his girl away from him and claim the prize. He leaned in close, almost intimate as he gently held her elbow, and whispered the three little words in Rose's ear that she had longed to hear.

 

“I love you.” Rose turned and looked into his eyes, and saw the truth looking back at her. She grabbed his lapels and pulled him into a passionate kiss.

 

Rose broke from the kiss and ran forward as she saw the TARDIS disappear. The Metacrisis Doctor walked up to her and slipped his hand in hers. She felt it; she felt that tingle down her spine, the tingle she always got from holding the Doctor's hand. She turned her head to look into those gorgeous brown eyes.

 

"He didn't even say goodbye," she said in a quiet, sad voice.

 

"You only say goodbye when you leave someone, Rose..., and I haven't left, I'm still here."

 

She looked into his eyes, scrutinizing his face, looking for differences.

 

“Who are you? Really? I don’t understand how you could be the Doctor."

 

“I’m me Rose, it’s me. I, he didn’t say goodbye because I’m, he’s afraid that I, he wouldn’t be able to leave you. I, he had to just run away while you were distracted by snogging me. And it was a very nice distraction.” The Doctor waggled his eyebrows and Rose sniggered.

 

“But how can there be two of you?” She was struggling to comprehend. He realised that her human brain would have a problem with this. If he couldn’t convince her that he was the Doctor, then he doubted they had a chance of a future together.

 

“Okay, I’ll try to explain. I am still me, but I have some Donna Noble in me as well. I can now feel human emotions, which I couldn’t before. And I do love you Rose, I have done for a long time now and didn’t know it.” He leaned forward and kissed her tenderly on the lips.

 

“Do you remember when I regenerated in front of you? It took you a while to come to terms with the fact that it was still me. Well, in a way I’ve regenerated again, except that my old body is still alive.”

 

He laughed at the thought of it. “I woke up in my TARDIS and Donna was there. And then this guy comes in who looks like me and starts lording it up, claiming it was his TARDIS and He was the Doctor. Can you imagine how confusing that was.”

 

“So are you like a split personality or somethin’,” she asked him.

 

“Welllll, it’s a bit like looking in a mirror. When you look in a mirror, you see yourself, a ‘you’ that does everything you do, thinks everything you think, it is you.” He scratched his head. “I’m not explaining this very well, am I?”

 

“No, actually it makes a weird kind of sense. I love Him, so that means I love you too, because he is you and you are him. Oh God that sounds like the Beatles,” she said giggling. “You’re my ‘mirror man’.”

 

“Oh I like that, ‘mirror man’. I always said you were brilliant Rose Tyler.” He grabbed her into a hug. “So about my question earlier, I’ve got one life, do you want me to spend it with you?” Rose looked into his brown, gorgeous, questioning, puppy dog eyes. She took his face in her hands and gave him her answer with her lips and tongue. She ran her fingers through his really great hair and they caressed each others bodies with their hands.

 

“Oi! Are you two goin’ to get a room?” Jackie called over to them with a grin. “Pete’s comin’ to fetch us in the airship, so we’ve just got to hang around here for a coupla hours.”

 

She walked over to them and looked at the Doctor. “So, what’s the deal with you then? What are ya, some sorta clone?”

 

The Doctor smiled. “Sort of, except I still have all of my memories and I have some added human bits as well, such as emotions and instincts. Oh, and I might be a bit ruder, don’t forget, it was bits of Donna the red head that I got.”

 

Jackie started laughing. “In touch with yer feminine side are ya?”

 

“At least I’ve got a feminine side to get in touch with,” the Doctor shot back in a Donna tone of voice.

 

“Oi!”

 

“Oi! Oh, that was rude,” he grinned. “And what’s this? Deviousness, I can be devious! Oh look out Jackie I can be Doctor Devious.” Rose started to laugh uncontrollably at the pair of them trading jibes and insults.

 

“Oh this is goin’ to be so much fun.” She moved in close and put her arm around his waist. The Doctor responded by putting his arm around her shoulders and pulling her in close.

 

 

+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

 

 

The Vitex airship was a medium sized, eight seater ship. The fuselage was similar to a Learjet without the wings. It was mounted below an aerodynamic, rigid ‘balloon’ and had two jet engines which gave it a maximum speed of 300 miles an hour. Vectored thrust also meant it could manoeuvre like a Harrier jump jet.

 

On board, Tony was sat in one of the window seats watching the ground go by. Pete had a laptop on the table and was keeping up to date with the Torchwood information channel.

 

“We are approaching the coordinates Pete, we will rendezvous in 19 minutes,” Jamie announced.

 

“Thanks Jamie. Not long now Tony.”

 

The Doctor was the first to hear the jet engines with his superior alien ears. He turned in the direction of the sound. He could just make out a speck in the sky.

 

“They’re here,” he said in a sing song voice.

 

The speck got larger and took on the shape of an airship. They watched as it circled around and approached into the wind. The computer controlled jet nozzles allowed it to hover like a helicopter and then gave a downward thrust to lower it to the sand.

 

As the door hinged downwards to form steps, Jackie could see Pete and Tony waiting for the steps to lock in place. As soon as they had, Tony leapt down them and ran across the sand.

 

“Mummy!” He jumped up and Jackie lifted him into a hug and spun around.

 

“Oh my little soldier, did you miss me?”

 

“Yeah, but I had ice cream and a ride in the airship,” he said, in a way that suggested he wouldn’t mind her going away again. Jackie put him down and ran towards Pete.

 

They hugged and kissed passionately. Pete was still upset with her for sneaking off, but he was also relieved that she was back safe and sound.

 

“I’m sorry love, can you forgive me?” she asked him.

 

“What? For being fiercely protective of your daughter? I would expect nothing less from Jackie Tyler,” he said with a warm smile. “But next time, I want you to trust me on this.” They kissed again and Pete noticed that the man on the beach wasn’t Mickey.

 

Tony had run over to Rose and was enjoying a hug and a tickle from his big sister. Rose put him back on the sand and he hid behind her legs as the Doctor spoke to him.

 

“You must be Tony.”

 

Tony looked up at Rose for reassurance and then back at the grinning man in the blue suit. Rose crouched down by his side.

 

“Tony, this is my friend, the Doctor. Do you remember me tellin’ you about him?”

 

“The time and space man?” Tony asked. Rose had told him bedtime stories about their adventures in the TARDIS.

 

Rose nodded. “That’s him, yes.” Tony came from behind her legs and the Doctor crouched down to be on the same level. He held out his hand.

 

“Hello Tony Tyler, I’m the Doctor.” They shook hands.

 

“Doctor who?” Tony asked in that direct way children have of asking questions.

 

“Jacks, I’ve got a few questions,” Pete said as everyone moved towards the airship. “Where’s Mickey, what’s he doin’ here and where’s the TARDIS?”

 

Jackie laughed. “Those are pretty good questions love. Mickey decided to stay over there. What with his Gran gone, and havin’ betrayed you by sneakin’ me out there, and Rose havin’ her Doctor back, I think he felt it was time to move on.”

 

She stopped and thought about his second question. “It’s probably best if Rose and ‘is lordship explain about ‘im,” she said mysteriously. “And as for the TARDIS, well, the Doctor’s got it.” Pete was beginning to wish he hadn’t asked.

 

“C’mon you lot, all aboard, I’m goin’ to the galley to put the kettle on. I could murder a cuppa,” Jackie declared as she climbed the few steps into the ship.

 

The flight home was very enjoyable. The Doctor told the story of the oncoming darkness from his point of view, the time beetle on Shan Shen and the Bad Wolf message. He told how they went to the Shadow Proclamation after the Earth disappeared.

 

Rose would tell him what she was doing when these things happened. They were sitting side by side holding hands and occasionally they would stop talking, smile at each other and snog.

 

He then got to the hard part, the metacrisis. He thought the mirror analogy was quite good for human minds to grasp and he explained it as a regeneration that split him into two.

 

The more Rose heard it, the more she started to accept it, as she had years before when he became the ‘sex on legs’ that he was now (another snog, just to be sure). There was something though, a memory, what was it?

 

Then it came to her. He had lost the TARDIS! Eight hundred or so years of travelling suddenly ended. He had lost it once before on Krop Tor and he was devastated at the thought of having to live in a house.

 

‘Doctor, are you gonna be all right? I mean you’ve lost everythin’, the TARDIS, the travellin’, the adventure.’ She was looking at him, concerned. ‘You’re stuck here.’

 

He too remembered Krop Tor and a conversation they’d had in Habitation Three. He used the words she had spoken then. ‘Yeah, but stuck with you, that's not so bad.’

 

‘Yeah?’ she asked with a smile.

 

He leaned forward and kissed her. ‘Yeah . . . You’re right that I’ve lost all of that, but it’s nothing compared to what I’ve gained.’ He gave her his special smile, the one he used to give just before they opened the door of the TARDIS on a new adventure. ‘New world, new me, new us, new life.’ He leaned towards her and snogged her again.

 

Jackie and Pete were beaming smiles at them, Jackie hadn’t seen her daughter this happy in years, and it made all the trouble and heartache worthwhile.

 

When they arrived at Tyler mansion, Tony was fast asleep. Pete lifted him out of the car seat and carried him into the house.

 

“Ah, good evening Sir. I see we have another new face. Is he a long lost son from Switzerland? It seems that every time your family goes on a trip, you come back with a new addition.” Alistair said with his deadpan, house manager face on.

 

“Good evening Alistair, I see you are as observant as ever. And if they were siblings, the way they snog would be very disturbing.” Pete wore his roguish grin as he moved into the house and took Tony upstairs to his bedroom to put him to bed.

 

The Doctor was looking around and Rose gave him a worried look. He saw her look and smiled.

 

“I was just remembering the last time I was in this house,” he told her. Bad memories of Cybermen and death.

 

“It’s all different now, it’s not just a house now, it’s a home. I’ll show you my suite.” Rose stopped and blushed, realising what her invitation might mean. “If you’d like?”

 

He gave her that boyish grin that made her go weak at the knees. “I do believe Rose Tyler, that you’re making me an offer I can’t refuse.”

 

Hand in hand, they went upstairs and Rose stopped outside the door to her suite of rooms. She opened the door and pulled him inside.

 

“This is my.... our living room,” she purred at him.

 

“Our?” She put her finger on his lips and then kissed them.

 

“Through there is our on-suite.” She nodded towards a door.

 

“And through here.” She took him by the hand and opened another door. “Is, our bedroom, if you want?”

 

They stood there in awkward silence like a couple of teenagers on a first date, neither wanting to tell the other that they had fantasized about this moment happening.

 

The Doctor was the first to take the plunge. “Er, yes, I do want. I want very much, I mean, I want you Rose, very mu....” She lunged at him. Her lips silencing him as her tongue sort his.

 

“Do you know [kiss] how long I’ve wanted this? [snog]” she asked him breathlessly, pulling at his jacket, trying to get it off his shoulders.

 

“This face, [kiss] or ‘daft old face’?” he replied, shrugging off the said jacket.

 

“Wha?” she breathed as she started to unbutton his shirt.

 

He started to unfasten her jeans. “Daft old face, [kiss] while we were dancing in the TARDIS. This [snog] face, when we hugged [kiss] after Krop Tor.”

 

Their tongues danced around their mouths, exploring, only breaking contact to remove her top.

 

“How [kiss] could you tell?” She fumbled with buttons and zips on his trousers.

 

“Superior Gallifreyan nose,” he told her, becoming frustrated at the tenacity of the clips on her bra (what he wouldn’t do for his sonic screwdriver right now). “I could smell your arousalllloooooh.” Rose had reached her hand inside his underpants.

 

Eventually, in very little time, they were naked in bed, exploring their bodies in a way they may have dreamed about, but never thought would happen.

 

 

+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

 

 

“So, have you thought about what you’re going to do Doctor,” Pete asked him over breakfast. The Doctor had a contented, relaxed look about him that they hadn’t seen before. Rose found it very appealing, having a similar look herself.

 

“I haven’t really had chance to think about it,” he said with a wink and a grin at his new girlfriend.

 

“Are you two ever gonna stop flirtin’ with each other,” Jackie said with a laugh.

 

“Only if you do first,” the ‘Donna’ side of the Doctor shot back. Pete and Jackie had talked long into the night and had reconciled their differences. They went to bed and reaffirmed their love for one another, and had also been flirting at breakfast.

 

Pete continued. “I’ll get security to create an identity for you that fits in with Rose’s story. Who do you want to be? ‘The Doctor’ might create too much interest in you.”

 

The Doctor thought about it, ‘James Bond’? ‘Remmington Steele’? ‘Horatio Nelson’?

 

“John Smith,” Rose said, interrupting his delusions of grandeur. “He always used that alias when we were travellin’, and I think it suits ‘im.”

 

“Hmm, it’s certainly uninteresting, but a bit obvious. There again it could be a double bluff. Okay, I’ll get security to run up a profile for you, passport, ID all of that stuff,” Pete told him. “And then we’ve got to meet the President at a special summit about the darkness and how you defeated it.”

 

And so it was, a week later, John Smith, former scientific advisor for UNIT met presidents and prime ministers at a secret summit for a debriefing on the events of the last few months.

 

The first part of his history was actually true. In a past life he had been an advisor to UNIT when he was exiled on Earth by the Time Lords. The rest of his story was that he had met Rose in Switzerland in a nightclub.

 

Trouble had broken out between some youths and the bouncers, so the Doctor had grabbed her hand and said ‘run’, leading her to safety. They had travelled together until he had to undertake a sensitive mission for UNIT, which meant they couldn’t contact each other for safety reasons.

 

They had remained faithful to each other over the years while he was undercover, and had recently been reunited when his mission was completed. Apparently, he had been instrumental in thwarting a terrorist cell’s attempt to create weapons of mass destruction. Pete had flown the family to Norway to collect him and bring him home.

 

John and Pete were wearing smart, tailored suits while Jackie and Rose wore designer outfits and accessories. Rose and the Doctor kept looking at each other with desire in their eyes, and the tabloid press were having a field day. Who was this mysterious new man who was obviously in love with the Vitex heiress. And where had she suddenly appeared from four years ago? Had she been with him in the past?

 

Before they went into the conference, Pete introduced them to the President of Great Britain.

 

“Oh, I know who you are!” the Doctor announced. “You’re Harriet Jones, Prime Min.... Er, President.”

 

“And you must be Dr. Smith, the man who saved the universe,” Harriet said as she shook his hand enthusiastically.

 

“Oh, I didn’t do it alone, I had a fantastic team helping me.” He put his hand around Rose’s shoulder and pulled her close.

  
“I expect to hear all about it inside,” she told him. “And Doctor, the whole world owes you a debt of gratitude. If there is anything that you want or need, do not hesitate to ask. I hope you will continue to be a scientific advisor for my government.”

 


	14. Here you are, living a life day after day.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Doctor and Rose settle in to a normal life of aliens, proposals and dealing with emergencies. See, normal!

 

** Chapter Fourteen **

 

 

** Here you are, living a life day after day.  **

** The one adventure I can never have (or so he thought).  **

 

 

A week after the summit, where all the facts of the oncoming darkness were revealed, and the heroic actions of the Doctor and his friends were revealed, Dr. John Smith and Rose Tyler were awarded the George Cross for ‘acts of the greatest heroism and of the most conspicuous courage in circumstances of extreme danger’ _._

 

“That’s one to add to the knighthood,” the Doctor had joked.

 

He was also nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize, and it was fairly certain that he would get it. He was as reluctant a hero as he had always been, wanting to just fade into the background and go unnoticed.

 

“Not much chance of that now Doctor, you’re famous,” Rose told him as they sat on the sofa in the lounge. She was watching the TV while the Doctor surfed the internet, looking for a car.

 

He had agreed to work at Torchwood as a Special Operations Technical Advisor, partnered with Rose (of course). He had a workshop / laboratory where he would tinker with alien tech and create high tech gadgets for Cybus industries, which when marketed would fund the Torchwood Institute.

 

“I used to have a cracking little canary yellow roadster,” he told Rose. “Bessie, a Siva Edwardian kit car with lots of ‘special’ modifications.”

 

“So whatya lookin’ for this time?” she asked him.

 

“Oh I don’t know, something special something tha.... Oh wow! This is brilliant. I’ve found it,” he said with an excited grin on his face.

 

“What? What have you found?” she was laughing at his excitement.

 

“The only car for a Time Lord, and the company hasn’t gone bust in this world! I’m going to get a DeLorian!”

 

Rose burst out laughing. “That’s perfect, absolutely brilliant. When can we go and get it?” She was as excited as him now.

 

“I’ll give them a call right now and arrange a test drive.”

 

The next day, they were in the showroom looking over the new DeLorian with ‘gull’ wing doors open. The sales assistant had volunteered to wedge himself into the small space in the back so that the Doctor and Rose could enjoy the test drive (anything for a sale).

 

They were hooked as soon as the Doctor pulled off the forecourt and accelerated up the street.

 

“Ho-ho, this is amazing,” he said as he put the car through its paces.

 

“Where ya gonna put the ‘flux capacitor’?” Rose joked.

 

The Doctor smiled at her. “You know there’s no such thing Rose. It’s a Helmic Regulator you’re thinking of.”

 

“Oh yeah, silly me,” she giggled. In the back, the salesman rolled his eyes.

 

Having bought the car, the Doctor spent the next few weeks modifying it in the Torchwood vehicle workshop in between ‘shouts’. He replaced the onboard computer with a neural-net positronic brain, similar to the one he had in K-9.

 

Old Bessie had an inertial dampening field generator, and he installed the same in Delores the DeLorian. He could decelerate from 70 to 0 in a fraction of a second and no one inside the car would notice.

 

Rose loved Delores and enjoyed going out for a drive around London, and on their days off they would drive into the country for picnics. Lately they had started driving around looking for a place of their own.

 

She had a folder of leaflets on her lap of properties available for sale in the more select areas of London.

 

“Oh this one’s nice,” she said taking out the glossy brochure.

 

“Let’s have a look,” the Doctor said has he took the brochure and started looking through it.

 

“DOCTOR!” Rose cried as the car headed for a ‘T’ junction with no one driving.

 

She watched open mouthed as the car slowed down and stopped at the junction. The right hand indicator flashed and when traffic allowed, the car turned right and continued on its journey.

 

“You’re right, this is really nice. ‘Postcode W11’, navigate.” He looked over at Rose and saw the open mouthed, stunned look on her face.

 

“Are you alright? You look like you’ve seen a Dalek or something,” he said with a laugh.

 

“Th.... The.... The car’s drivin’ itself,” she observed.

 

“Yeah, good isn’t it? I fitted an array of sensors around Delores and linked them through the GPS to the positronic brain. I only have to give a postcode, OS coordinates or a compass heading and off she goes. She can even do it in fog or at night, and I’ve got a head up display if I want to drive manually through fog as well.”

 

Rose flopped back in the seat breathed out. “You could have warned me.”

 

“I could have yeah, but where would the fun be in that, eh?” He flashed her his special smile. “With the TARDIS gone, we have to get our excitement elsewhere.”

 

Rose laughed and smiled at him fondly. “You miss her, don’t you?”

 

“The Old Girl was a big part of my life for hundreds of years, I can’t deny that. But I’ve got you now, and that counts for a hell of a lot.” Rose leaned over and kissed him on the cheek.

 

“Just don’t start calling me old girl just yet,” she laughed.

 

 

+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

 

 

“John, we’re in position. What have you got for me? Over,” Rose asked over the headset radio.

 

“Hang on, just getting the video online now. You should be getting the live feed any second now, over.”

 

Rose and Jake were either side of a door to an apartment that reminded Rose of her old flat on the Powell estate. They were now getting a view of the inside of the flat displayed on the inside of their combat goggles.

 

“Can you show us each room in turn please? Over.” Rose asked.

 

John was in the Mobile Incident Vehicle or M.I.V, controlling the video camera and feeding the data to the agents in the field.

 

“What was that? Back up, pan left. There he is! Over”

 

“We were right, an Absorbaloff from Clom, over” the Doctor told them.

 

“Recommendations? Over” Jake asked him.

 

“Covert entry with the ‘netting’ and I’ll monitor him for any sign of having detected you, over” he said.

 

“Roger that, here we go.” Jake placed a fine metal netting on the door held in place with a sucker in each corner. He nodded to Rose and she pressed a button on her wrist computer.

 

The door silently dissolved into sawdust with the netting lying on top. Rose and Jake moved quickly down the hallway and took up positions outside the kitchen door.

 

Rose silently typed a message to the Doctor telling him they were in position.

 

“Okay Rose, Jake, I’ve moved the camera above the door. You are seeing the room from your perspective, over” the Doctor told them.

 

The green, flabby alien was sat with its back to the door.

 

It was drinking a cup of tea! That looked so incongruous.

 

Jake placed the netting on the door and stood back, stunner raised ready to fire. Rose held up her hand and counted down her fingers. Three, two, one. The door dissolved and Jake fired. ‘Zzapp!’

 

The alien flinched and then leapt out of the chair to turn and face them. He grabbed a walking cane off the table.

 

“What is this? Lunch and dessert,” He said with a lecherous look at Rose. ‘Zzap!’, ‘zzap!’. Jake and Rose both fired again with little effect.

 

“Will you stop that, I’m ticklish,” the alien said as it moved towards them.

 

“Stunners ineffective, falling back, over” Rose called into her headset as they walked backwards down the hallway.

 

The Doctor was watching through the video feed. “Rose, the walking cane, use your pistol and shoot the metal tip, over.”

 

Rose holstered her stunner and took out her Glock 17C, semi automatic and activated the laser sight. ‘BLAM!’, BLAM!’. The metal ball on the tip of the cane popped and fizzled as sparks flew off it.

 

“WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?” the alien shouted.

 

“I’ve just taken us off the menu,” Rose said with an evil grin. “Jake, put ‘im on ice.” ‘Zzap!’, the alien fell back with a ‘flump’ onto the floor.

 

“John, alien threat neutralized, area secure. Send in the recovery crew. We’re standin’ down, over.” She walked back towards the kitchen.

 

“John, did you see the blinds in the kitchen? I think they would look really nice in our kitchen,” she told him. A bluebottle fly buzzed into the room and landed on her shoulder.

 

“Rose, I don’t think a Torchwood operation is the right place to.... Oh, they are nice, aren’t they. Fancy going shopping after we finish our shift?” he asked her.

 

Rose laughed and headed out of the apartment with Jake as the recovery crew came in. “We’re on our way, see you in a minute.”

 

In the incident vehicle, the Doctor was parking the micro-surveillance drone on a small disc on the console.

 

“Well, I think that was a successful field test of the spy-fly,” he said with a self satisfied smile.

 

Rose climbed in and kissed him on the cheek. “Yeah, the live feed to the goggles was really useful. We knew exactly where the alien was. I think this little fly is going to be a permanent member of the team.”

 

Back at Torchwood, the team went through the debriefing and wrote up their reports. The Doctor went up to see Pete before they went off shift.

 

“Well John, that’s another fantastic invention for our Special Operations agents. In the short time that you’ve been with us, you’ve improved the operational safety of the missions no end.”

 

“That’s good to hear Pete. I wanted to talk to you about a design I’ve got for an electric motor, it’s a bit of a game changer for the whole planet and I need your business brain to assess the impact.”

 

“An electric motor? The worlds got thousands of electric motors,” Pete told him.

 

“Not like this one. We are going to be multi-millionaires. I’ve already made one and put it in the DeLorian, it runs like a dream.”

 

“So what’s different about this motor then?” Pete was intrigued.

 

“Firstly it’s a superconducting monopolar, Faraday engine. The windings are made of a special alloy, made from 42 different elements blended in a certain way. Cybus industries are producing bales of it as we speak.”

 

“Don’t we already have superconductors?” Pete asked him.

 

“We do, but this one superconducts in liquid nitrogen, that makes it cheaper. The alloy alone is worth a fortune; combine that with my design for a motor.... Well, anything that moves will never need fuel again. Airships, trains, cars, boats, hovercrafts, they can all use these motors, as well as domestic appliances, vacuum cleaners, lawn mowers, food processors, fans, anything!”

 

Pete sat down heavily in his chair. “Oh my God. This will have an enormous knock on effect on the economy. I’d better call the President.”

 

The Doctor put his hand on the phone before Pete dialled.

 

“Pete, this is for the planet, not just for us.”

 

Pete nodded. “Understood. You’re a good man John, I can see why my daughter fell in love with you.” He gave him his roguish smile and started to dial.

 

 

+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

 

 

** Four years, six months after arriving in Pete’s World  **

** (Three months for the Doctor) **

 

 

The Doctor and Rose sat at the yellow Formica covered table in the fish and chip shop on the Powell estate. It was a day off and he wanted a nostalgic trip down memory lane, and this was one of his favourite memories. Although he was certain he could still feel the sting of Jackie’s right hand on his face, even through the void.

 

“This was a brilliant idea,” Rose told him, biting into a chip. She then had a melancholy thought.

 

“I wonder if He’s havin’ chips where he is?” she asked.

 

“Most definitely, I love Earth chips.” He looked at Rose’s face. “Don’t worry about me Rose, I’ll be fine. Don’t forget that over there, I’m fully Time Lord and don’t have human emotions like I do here.”

 

Rose often got confused when he talked about himself and the ‘other’ himself as the same person. They were the same person, but which one was he talking about?

 

“I will be missing you over there, but not like I would here. And I certainly wouldn’t do this.” He reached into his jacket pocket and took out a small red box.

 

Rose looked at the box and then into his eyes, her mouth open.

 

“Rose, Marion Tyler, would you do me the honour of consenting to be my wife,” he asked her as he opened the box. Rose looked at the gorgeous diamond ring inside the box.

 

The doctor looked a bit uncertain. “Or do I just say ‘will you marry me’? I’m not too clear on the etiquette.”

 

“Yes! Yes, definitely yes.” He took the diamond ring out of the box and placed it on her ring finger. She leaned across the table and gave him a long passionate kiss.

 

The Delorian whispered to a stop at the front steps of Tyler mansion. They had moved into their own house in Notting Hill a couple of weeks ago, but were visiting tonight because the Doctor had got something important he wanted to ask Pete.

 

They walked up the steps hand in hand and rang the bell to the side of the front door. They grabbed a quick kiss as the door opened.

 

“Ah, Dr. Smith and Miss Tyler, what an unexpected pleasure,” Alistair said with a genuine smile. He stood aside so that they could enter.

 

“Yo! Alistair, Bro’. How’s it hangin’ my man?” the Doctor said, giving him a low five and brother from the ’hood handshake. “Is the master of the house in?”

 

“Yes sir, and Mr. Tyler is also in residence.”

 

Rose snorted a laugh and the Doctor grinned.

 

“You should take some Milk of Magnesia for that acid wit of yours Alistair.” The Doctor winked. “Trust me, I’m a Doctor.”

 

Alistair was smiling at them fondly. “They’re in the lounge. Do you want me to announce you?” he asked.

 

“No, that’s alright old friend, we’ll surprise them,” the doctor replied. Rose kissed Alistair on the cheek as she went past.

 

They walked into the lounge and Jackie leapt up to hug them, Pete sauntered over and hugged them after Jackie had finished with them.

 

“Pete, I’ve got something to ask you, and I think you might be interested as well Jackie,” the Doctor told them. He cleared his throat nervously.

 

“Peter Tyler, I would like to ask for your daughters hand in marriage.” He looked at Rose and grinned. “Did I do that one right?”

 

Jackie squealed, hugged and kissed Rose, and then did the same to the Doctor (which made him a bit uncomfortable). Pete grinned and shook the Doctor’s hand. Rose showed them her engagement ring.

 

“Congratulations old man,” Pete said. “And yes, you may have my daughter’s hand.”

 

“I was hoping to have the rest of her as well. I have experience of just having the hand,” he held up his right hand and wiggled his fingers, ginning. “It leads to all sorts of bother.”

 

 

+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

 

 

“Ugh, it stinks down here,” Rose complained as they trudged through the sewer. “Can’t you come up with a gadget to get rid of smells?”

 

“No need, this worlds already got one. It’s called Oust, and I think I’d be infringing a patent,” the Doctor replied lightly.

 

Jake was bringing up the rear and laughed at a thought he had just had. “Anyway, you always come up smellin’ of Rose.”

 

She flashed Jake a smile. “Shut up!” she said playfully.

 

“Heads up guys. Adjoining tunnel 20 metres on the left. It’s a Weevil, over,” Chrissie informed them from the M.I.V. She was flying the ‘spy-fly’.

 

“Roger that. Getting into position now,” the Doctor replied.

 

‘Zzap!’, ‘splash’.

 

“Okay control, we’ve got him. We’re bringing him out, over.

 

“So Jake, you got your best man speech worked out yet?” Rose asked as they dragged the unconscious alien back to the entrance.

 

“I’m workin’ on it, it’s got to be epic for your weddin’,” he said with a grin.

 

“And clean!” the Doctor told him.

 

“Aw man, that’s half my material gone already,” he laughed. They often had friendly banter after a mission, it helped to unwind and let the adrenalin levels return to normal.

 

“Is Sarah still okay for Saturday? It’s the final fitting of the bridesmaids dresses.” Jake nodded.

 

Chrissie could hear the conversation and cut in. “I’m still Okay Rose, your place at 11:00 isn’t it?”

 

“That’s right; Alice, Gwen and Julia will be there too.”

 

They got to the ladder that led up to the street and found the ‘animal management’ crew waiting. They put the Weevil in a sling and hoisted it up into the recovery wagon. It would be transported to Torchwood Three in Cardiff to be sent back through the rift.

 

They replaced the sewer manhole cover and carefully removed their waders, putting them in the airtight decontamination bin. Once everyone was on board, Jake drove the M.I.V back to Torchwood One.

 

“Next time we have a sewer search, I want to fly the ‘spy-fly’,” Rose told them.

 

“Seniority I’m afraid,” Chrissie said with a smile.

 

“John, tell her,” Rose said playfully.

 

“If you don’t let me play with the fly, I’m tellin’ my Dad,” John said in a child’s voice.

 

Rose slapped his arm. “Shut up! A fat lot of help you are.”

 

While they were laughing and teasing each other, Jake called over to them from the cab.

 

“Hey guys, we’ve got a building fire up ahead and no emergency services in attendance.”

 

“Pull over,” Chrissie commanded as she put her radio headset on.

 

“Mike-India-Victor one to control, respond, over,” she said into the mike.

 

“Mike-India-Victor one go ahead, over.” It was ‘Irish’ Stu Sinclair on dispatch.

 

“We have a fire in what appears to be a flat over some shops. Are emergency services on the way? Over.”

 

‘Irish’ had their location from the vehicle transponder showing on his screen.

 

“Fire engine and snorkel on route. ETA seven minutes, over.”

 

Just as he announced the timescale, a woman came stumbling out of a door to the side of the shop front and collapsed on the pavement. Rose grabbed the first aid kit and an oxygen cylinder and ran across the road with the rest of the team.

 

She knelt down beside the gasping woman and put the mask over her face, turning the cylinder on full.

 

“My daughter!” she wheezed. “Holly is still in there! Help her, please, get her out, she’s all I’ve got.”

 

Rose looked up at the Doctor, her eyes full of concern. He wasn’t there. He was already running back to the M.I.V dragging Chrissie with him.

 

“Power up a fly and get it in there now,” he told her. It was the voice of the ‘oncoming storm’ and tolerated no question. He grabbed a combat helmet with goggles and two respirator masks that they used when dealing with ‘haz-mat’ incidents.

 

He ran back to Rose and the supine woman and knelt on one knee.

 

“How old is Holly? Where is she?” the Doctor asked her in a clear voice that carried authority.

 

“Sh.... [gasp, cough] She’s four. She was in her bedroom,” the woman wheezed.

 

The Doctor stood up and headed for the door, smoke was billowing out now..

 

“DOCTOR!?” Rose shouted. She was nervous; she never called him that in public. “What are you doin’?”

 

“Rose, there’s a four year old girl in there. Her name is Holly, and I seriously doubt that she has six minutes.”

 

Rose kissed him hard on the lips. “You’d better come back in one piece or there’ll be trouble.”

 

He gave her his Time Lord, ‘I’ll be fine’ grin. Turning and heading for the door, he put on the respirator, then the helmet and disappeared into the smoke.

 

 

+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

 

 

Pete Tyler was sat at his desk going through the monthly parliamentary report that he had to prepare. He didn’t mind too much because it kept Torchwood clean.

 

The intercom on his desk ‘pinged’ for his attention.

 

“Tyler here.”

 

“Director, it’s Stuart Sinclair on dispatch. I thought you might like to know that your daughter’s team are in attendance at a house fire. They were first on the scene as they were passing the property.”

 

Pete got a sudden knot in the pit of his stomach. He knew what they were like, the Doctor and his daughter. If there was trouble or danger, they would be in the middle of it.

 

“Tell me they haven’t done something stupid,” Pete said into the intercom.

 

“John has entered the building in an attempt to rescue a four year old child.”

 

“Shit! I knew it. Give me the address, I’m goin’ over there.”

 

He made his way down to the basement car park. ‘Why do the lifts go slower when you’re in a hurry?’ he thought to himself. He arrived at the basement and ran out of the lift before the doors had fully opened and headed for his car.

 

The doors on his BMW detected the key in his pocket and unlocked as he approached. He slipped into the drivers seat and pressed the engine start, immediately flooring the accelerator and screeching towards the exit.

 

As he followed the satnav instructions, it occurred to him that he didn’t know what he could do when he got there. He certainly had no gear or experience for entering a burning building. He could just be there for Rose while they waited for that stupid and incredibly brave alien.

 

 

+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

 

 

“Chrissie, talk to me, what have you got?” the Doctor asked through the comm-link.

 

“I’m on thermal imaging at the moment, John it’s really hot up here. There’s a lot of turbulence from convection currents. Up the stairs, the top three steps turn to the left. The fire is hottest in a room to the right, that appears to be the kitchen, with the living room next to it.”

 

“Okay, I’m at the top of the stairs and turning left. I can’t see a thing through the smoke so I’m relying on the video feed.”

 

As the Doctor passed a door Chrissie had an idea. “John! The door on your left is the bathroom. Wet a towel, and if there’s a shower, soak yourself.”

 

“Good idea. Roger that.” He stepped into the smoke filled bathroom, grabbed a large towel, stood in the bath and turned on the shower. When he was thoroughly soaked, he stepped out of the bath.

 

“John, I’ve crawled the ‘fly’ under the door opposite. I’m picking up a single heat source of 37 degrees Celsius, over.”

 

“Okay, I’m on my way over.” The hallway was full of thick, black smoke. Along the ceiling, he saw the occasional hint of rolling orange flames. He crouched low and moved along the floor to the door opposite. He opened the door quickly, rolled inside and shut the door with his foot.

 

“Where is she Chrissie,” he asked. The room was smoky but not as bad as outside.

 

“To the right of the door, over.”

 

The Doctor looked over and saw a wardrobe. He scurried across the room and listened, there was coughing coming from inside.

 

“She’s shut herself in the wardrobe, you clever girl!” He opened the doors and saw the face of a terrified, four year old girl. She looked like a startled deer caught in the headlights of a car.

 

“Hello Holly. My name’s John and I’ve come to take you to your mummy. Okay?” he told her. “Here, put this on.”

 

He fitted the mask over her face and pressed the purge to give her a blast of fresh air. She started coughing and he picked her up in the wet towel with one arm as she clung to his neck. He went into the hall and saw that the kitchen door was a wall of flame.

 

“John, the spectrometer on the ‘fly’ is showing that some of the gases are approaching their flash point, over.”

 

“Well aren’t you just full of good news this afternoon,” he said. That was his ‘inner Donna’ speaking. He was getting stressed.

 

Keeping low, he moved along the landing until he heard a cracking noise. He looked up and saw the ceiling collapse in a swarm of yellow embers that looked like a million fireflies dancing in the smoke. The rafters fell into the stairwell and ignited the carpet.

 

“Oh isn’t that just wizard!” ‘inner Donna’ said out loud.

 

His Time Lord brain kicked into gear and he immediately knew what he needed to do.

 

“JAKE! Get the van under the second window, now!” He made his way back into the child’s bedroom and shut the door. His uniform and the wet towel were now steaming.

 

Jake leapt into driver’s seat and shouted through the open window. “ROSE, clear the street. I need to get in front of the building.”

 

A crowd of people had gathered to see what was going on.

 

“EVERYONE STAND BACK, NOW!” Rose bellowed at the crowd as the M.I.V moved forwards. The crowd were so stunned that this petité, blonde had a voice that could buckle steel, that they all moved back as one.

 

“Okay John, I’m under the window, over,” Jake informed him.

 

“Get on the roof. I’m going to drop her down to you. When I open the window, I won’t have much time.”

 

Jake climbed out of the driver window up unto the roof of the van. Inside, the Doctor sat Holly by the window and moved the wardrobe in front of them. With the doors open, it formed a little ‘box’ around the window. He hoped it was enough.

 

“Flash over imminent!” Chrissie announced in his earpiece.

 

“That kind of information does wonders for my concentration,” he told her as he opened the window. The draft of air drew thick black smoke under the door and started filling the room.

 

He picked up Holly and sat her on the windowsill. “You have to trust me Holly, Jake will catch you. Okay?” She was crying and trembling but nodded her head. He picked her up under her arms and held her out of the window. The sounds of sirens were getting closer.

 

“Ready Jake? Catch.” He let go of the girl. The crowd gasped and held their breath as she dropped out of the window. Jake caught her into an embrace against his chest to cheers and applause, just as there was a ‘whump!’ and a fireball, blowing glass and debris over the street.

  
Jake instinctively crouched over the girl to protect her from the falling debris. People screamed as the window blew out, all except for one who screamed “DOCTOR!?”

 


	15. Vow to thee my Lord (of Time)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The cliff-hanger is resolved, because there's a wedding to go to.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (The castle actually exists, c17th castle, I've just bigged it up a bit for the story)

 

** Chapter Fifteen **

 

 

There was a ‘whump!’ and a fireball, blowing glass and debris over the street.

 

Jake instinctively crouched over the girl to protect her from the falling debris. People screamed as the window blew out, all except for one who screamed “DOCTOR!?”

 

Jake looked up over his shoulder and saw fire curling upwards out of the window, scorching the wall above. He leaned over the edge of the roof and called to Rose.

 

“Take the girl; I need to move the van so the fire engine can get in.” He lowered her into Rose’s arms and she hugged her close. Blue flashing lights filled the street as the engines came around the corner, sirens wailing.

 

Jake slipped down through the open window and pulled forwards as the fire engine pulled in behind him. He jumped out and ran to the fire officer.

 

“We’re Torchwood, there’s an agent in that room. He just managed to get the child out before the flashover.” The fire officer looked up at the window and had a grim look on his face.

 

The hoses were quickly unreeled and water started pouring through the damaged window. A ladder was lowered off the engine and put up to the window as a fireman was kitted out with breathing apparatus.

 

Jake went over to Rose and enveloped her in a comforting hug. Chrissie came out of the side door looking up at the billowing smoke coming out of the window with a look of horror.

 

“I lost the telemetry from the ’fly’ when the room exploded,” Chrissie said quietly. Rose was trying to stifle a sob. They watched the fireman ascend the ladder and poke his head into the window.

 

Inside, the fireman could see the charred, fire damaged room. Before he could enter the room, he would have to move a wardrobe that had fallen forwards in front of the window.

 

He leaned in and started to slide it to one side, when the end nearest to him started to rise up. To his surprise, a black uniformed man stood up and pushed the wardrobe backwards where it crashed to the floor.

 

He took off his combat helmet to reveal impossibly sticky-up hair. There was a ‘hiss’ and ‘shflop’ as the man pulled the respirator off his face. He just stood there steaming, with a maniacal grin on his face.

 

“Bloody hell! That was one hell of a ride,” he laughed. “Mind if I use your ladder?”

 

The fireman backed his way down the ladder and the Doctor stuck his head out the window.

 

“JOHN, YOU’RE ALIVE!” Rose shouted up at him. He smiled at her and patted his body to reassure her.

 

“Yep, you don’t get rid of me that easily. Are Holly and her mother alright?”

 

“The paramedics say they are suffering from smoke inhalation but will recover,” she replied.

 

The Doctor climbed down the ladder to tumultuous applause from the crowd. He swaggered over to Rose, grabbed her around the waist, leaned her back and snogged her. The crowd cheered and whooped, some whistled. He stood her back up and she gasped for breath, blushing furiously.

 

“You smell like a barbeque,” she told him with a tongue in teeth grin. He was looking over her shoulder as a black BMW came speeding down the street.

 

“Uh-oh, now I’m for it.”

 

 

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** Four years, nine months after arriving in Pete’s World  **

** (Six months for the Doctor) **

 

 

Rose was in her room in the castle with her bridesmaids and her Mum, getting ready for her wedding. Every time she thought about the words ‘my wedding’; it sent a shiver down her spine.

 

Pete had suggested that they hire this castle in Somerset for the week, it was grand enough for Jackie’s desire for her daughter to have a society wedding, but remote and private enough for the Doctor and Rose to have the quiet, discreet wedding they desired.

 

It had a round keep in the centre with a reception hall, dining hall etc on the ground floor, and suites of rooms on the other three floors. The grounds were enclosed in an octagonal wall with turrets on each corner that were made into individual suites for guests.

 

When Rose heard Pete’s suggestion she hugged him and was reminded of an adventure she and the Doctor had once had in medieval England. She immediately knew that she wanted a medieval theme to her wedding.

 

She explained to Jackie how she had worn this particular gown to the king’s banquet and that the Doctor must have found it attractive, because he couldn’t take his eyes off her.

 

Jackie called in a designer to listen to Rose’s description, and the originally gold fabric gown was recreated in white silk. She wore a simple, shift dress which hugged her figure in all the right places. The bell sleeves were off the shoulder, level with the top of the laced up bodice, which gave a hint of her cleavage. A broad leather belt hung on her hips, accentuating her narrow waist. Instead of the traditional veil, she wore a white silk headdress that fell across her shoulders, held in place with a silver headband which sat on her head like a small crown.

 

Rose was looking through the window at the beautiful grounds of the castle and thought about the last few years of her life.

 

Working in Henricks.

 

The mysterious stranger who saved her life.

 

Travelling through time and space.

 

Falling in love with the Doctor and not being able to tell him for fear of rejection and losing her place in the TARDIS.

 

Saving his life, and he saving hers.

 

Being trapped in this universe thinking she would never see him again.

 

And then, the icing on the cake, to have him back and be able to share his single life.

 

“Are you alright Sweetheart?” Jackie asked her as she saw the faraway look in her eyes. “Not havin’ second thoughts are ya?”

 

Rose looked up and smiled. “I remember a time when you would have run him out of town if he’d suggested marryin’ me.”

 

“Ah, yeah, but he’s changed.” Jackie frowned. “Actually he’s changed more than once.”

 

Rose snorted a laugh. “Yeah well this time it’s for keeps, and I’m goin’ to marry ‘im. I was just thinkin’ how it very nearly didn’t happen.”

 

The Doctor was wandering around the reception hall, talking to guests who had been ‘bussed’ in from London in a convoy of luxury coaches. He was wearing black trousers and boots, a white, medieval style tunic and a tardis blue jacket. Around the sleeves and collar where white embroidered Gallifreyan symbols.

 

A troupe of musicians who specialised in medieval instruments and music were playing madrigals on lutes, recorders, dulcimers and tambors. It gave the whole place a magical atmosphere of an era long gone and complemented the surroundings perfectly.

 

He had chatted to the Torchwood ‘Dream Team’ about the dimension cannon project, and complimented them on their brilliant work. They were fit to burst with pride at a compliment from the man who had saved the universe.

 

He noticed that Torchwood security had rigged 3D cameras all over the castle and grounds. Not for security, but to record the days events and produce a wedding video for them, the like of which had never been seen before.

 

The Reconnaissance and surveillance department had staff with holographic cameras, normally used for scene-of-crime, that were taking wedding photos for the album.

 

The Doctor grabbed a glass of champagne off a tray that was being carried past and took a sip. He spotted Pete in his morning suit and strolled over.

 

“How’s it goin’ Pete?” he asked as he approached.

 

Pete took a sip of his champagne. “Not bad John. Didn’t think I’d be this nervous though.”

 

“Is everyone here now?”

 

“The Presidents motorcade is just arriving outside. Once her entourage are in the grounds we can shut the gates. That’ll keep the paparazzi out,” Pete said with a satisfied smile.

 

Alistair joined the two of them, having appointed himself the Chief Usher and unofficial wedding planner. ‘Who else has the necessary skills?’ he had asked the Doctor.

 

“John, what a lovely atmosphere you’ve created here. It’s very Saint George....” He saw Jackie approaching. “.... And the dra-ah, Mrs Tyler, may I say how lovely you look today.”

 

The Doctor spluttered champagne out of his mouth and down his nose, which made his eyes water. He had to turn away and hide his face; he was failing to hide his laughter.

 

Jackie gave Alistair her ‘look’. “Yer can say it, yeah. But can ya keep a straight face when yer do?” She gently patted his cheek.

 

Alistair gave her an affectionate smile and then spotted the President enter the hall.

 

“If you would excuse me, I see other people at whom I can throw veiled insults.” He gave a curt nod and headed off in the direction of Harriet Jones. It was a rare gift he had. He left people with the warm glow of a compliment received, and the niggling doubt that they may have been insulted but missed it.

 

Jackie had come from Rose’s room to tell Pete that she was ready and that he was wanted. Jake Simmonds, best man and Alice Dimaggio, maid of honour came into the hall and asked that people made their way to the main hall.

 

The men from Blue Watch were in morning suits, acting as ushers, showing the guests to their seats. It was a fairly easy task, as everyone was both a friend of the Doctor and Rose, and could sit on either side.

 

At the front of the hall was a type of altar, although the ceremony was not going to be religious. The Doctor and Rose had seen enough gods and demons on their travels to realise that they didn’t really have a religion, more of a philosophy on the nature of time, space and the universe.

 

The superintendent registrar had entered into the spirit of the whole occasion by wearing a medieval style robe. She was standing in front of the altar, chatting to Jackie and the Doctor while waiting for everyone to take their seat. The minstrels set up at the back of the hall, this time with modern instruments and waited for their cue.

 

Mendelssohn’s Wedding March started up on sustained electric guitar and synthesiser and the registrar raised her arms to encourage the congregation to stand. The Doctor and Jake took their positions in front of the registrar.

 

Rose and Pete walked slowly through the hall arm in arm; she had that smile on her face that lit up the room. Pete looked so proud of his daughter and his role in her wedding.

 

As she reached the altar, she looked at the Doctor and he looked at her.

 

“Hello,” he said, flashing his eyebrows, obviously enjoying the vision before him.

 

“Hello,” she replied.

 

The registrar signalled for people to sit and made her introductions before getting down to the business in hand. She asked the Doctor to repeat the civil marriage declaration.

 

"I do solemnly declare that I know not of any lawful impediment why I, John, may not be joined in matrimony to Rose Marion," the Doctor stated.

 

“He did that better than you did,” Jackie whispered in Pete’s ear.

 

It was Rose’s turn. "I do solemnly declare that I know not of any lawful impediment why I, Rose Marion, may not be joined in matrimony to John."

 

The registrar smiled at them and moved on to the contracting words.

 

"I call upon these persons here present to witness that I take thee, Rose Marion, to be my lawful wedded wife," the Doctor repeated. He was gazing into her eyes, lost in the depth of the love that he saw there.

 

"I call upon these persons here present to witness that I take thee, John, to be my lawful, wedded, husband." Her voice was deep and sultry, thick with desire.

 

The registrar then announced that ‘John’ and Rose would say their own vows as they exchanged rings. Jake walked over and opened the red boxes. The Doctor took Rose’s white gold ring with the Gallifreyan ‘infinity’ symbol engraved on it.

 

John spoke what sounded like a mixture of Gaelic and Cantonese, the sing song quality of the words had the assembled guests mesmerised. Rose recognised the first three words, the Doctor had taught them to her a while ago, it was her name in Gallifreyan.

 

When he finished, he repeated it in English, his voice low and full of emotion.

 

“Rose, Marion Tyler. When I first took your hand and told you to run, we ran together, hand in hand.

We ran through the whole of time and space, together, hand in hand.

We found laughter and danger in our adventures, together, hand in hand. And we have the adventure of living a life, day after day, together, hand in hand.” He placed the ring on her finger

 

The hall was silent as Rose spoke in a sultry voice. “Doctor,” she said in that special way, just for him. “John Smith.” That was for the guests that didn’t know their history.

 

“When you first took my hand and told me to run, I fell in love with you.

When you showed me all of time and space, I knew I was in love with you.

When you were lost to me and I was all alone, I was still in love with you.

And when I looked in the mirror, and saw you there, I fell in love all over again.” She slipped the ring on his finger.

 

Many of the guests didn’t understand the references to their words, but they didn’t need to, their love for each other radiated from them and was palpable. The registrar cleared her throat to speak and said those immortal words.

 

“John, you may now kiss your bride.”

 

The Doctor took the tip of her chin gently in his thumb and forefinger and tilted her head back slightly. His lips gently brushed hers, and retreated slightly without breaking contact. They applied slightly more pressure and he tilted his head to the side.

 

His hands cupped her face as his lips applied a little more pressure. Rose ran her hands through his oh, so great hair. The kiss was chaste, pure, sensual and erotic all at the same time. No one was quite sure how they achieved it, but it was a fantastic snog.

 

The 3D cameras were capturing the whole thing, and when the video was edited later, the view would rotate, Hollywood style, through 360 degrees to an amazing choral soundtrack that they would enjoy watching again and again.

 

Jake stood and started to applaud. Blue Watch followed suit, and soon the hall was full of applause for the amazing couple.

 

When they broke from the kiss, the Doctor had to put his hand in the small of her back to steady her as she was a bit dizzy. They looked at the guests applauding and realised they were applauding them, and promptly blushed.

 

The formal, posed photographs were taken in the grounds of the castle; they were very ‘arty’ and tastefully done. When the album was produced, each photograph was holographic and it appeared as though you were looking into a box with tiny people in it. The main hall was rearranged with long tables for the sit down meal, speeches, and the usual formalities.

 

When the hall was ready, the guests made their way in and wandered around looking at the little cards with names on to see where they were sitting. Alistair was in his element, priding himself on his memory for names and he knew pretty well where everyone was supposed to sit.

 

The waiting staff wore medieval costumes and the menu had an authentic feel to it, with items that were available in sixth century Britain. There were fruity wines made from various berries, ale, cider and specially brewed mead. The minstrels continued to play their traditional instruments and music as a background to the general chit-chat during the meal.

 

After the truly superb meal, Jake stood and tapped his glass with a knife to get the attention of the room. He called on Pete to say a few words, to great applause and cheering from the Torchwood crew.

 

“I’d like to thank everyone for coming to this special day, especially you Madam President for taking time out of your busy schedule to be with us here today.” he started. “Most of all, I’d like to thank John for making my daughter so happy. If my daughter is happy, then her mother is happy, and if her mother is happy, then I’m off the hook.” He had his Pete Tyler roguish smile on. The guests laughed, especially Alistair.

 

“And I’d like to thank my daughter for being the best daughter a man could ever want. I love you Sweetheart.” That got an ‘aaaah’ and a round of applause. “Ladies and gentlemen, please raise your glasses in a toast to Rose and John, the bride and groom.”

 

Jake then invited the Doctor to give his speech. He stood and cleared his throat; he wasn’t good at this sort of thing. Give him an army of Daleks any day. He thanked Pete and Jackie for producing a wonderful daughter for him to marry, and complimented Rose on how stunning she looked. He said a few words on how he never thought a day like this would ever happen to him, and still couldn’t believe that it had. He finished with a toast to the bridesmaids.

 

They handed bouquets of flowers to the bridesmaids to the applause of the guests.

 

It was time for the best man’s speech. Jake took out a fake diary from inside his jacket which had the title, ‘The Diary of Alistair, the Non-buttling Butler’. This immediately got a titter from the audience.

 

“Day One - Spikey haired man arrived today.” He proceeded to tell little anecdotes of their life in the mansion. There were innuendos, double entendres and lots of laughs. The Doctor and Rose were blushing, and they could see Alistair grinning at them from the corner of the room.

 

Jackie had supplied lots of information for Jake to give a background on the Doctor’s rubbish timekeeping. ‘No makin’ fun of him mind’, she had told him, ‘that’s my job’.

 

It turned out that Jake was a natural comedian with a great sense of timing. Tears of laughter were running down people’s cheeks. At the end of the speech, he asked for the cake to be wheeled in for cutting by the bride and groom.

 

The Doctor and Rose thought they knew what cake they had ordered, but Jackie had secretly asked for a small addition. As the cake trolley was wheeled in, Rose squealed with delight. On top of the cake was a yellow haired, icing sugar woman in blue jeans and a pink hoodie. Holding her hand was a brown suited man with sticky up hair. They were standing in front of a blue TARDIS.

 

 

+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

 

 

The main hall was being cleared of chairs and tables to convert it into a ballroom for the evenings entertainment. The guests were enjoying drinks at the mini bar in the reception hall and Jake had arranged for a little surprise to get everyone in the party mood.

 

A video karaoke machine had been installed in the corner, where people looked at it suspiciously.

 

“Oh for goodness sake!” Alistair said as he walked over and picked up the mike. He looked through the selection and smiled. A familiar beat started up that everyone recognised, ‘I Want To Break Free’ by Queen. People smirked this was going to be fun.

 

“I want to break free-ee,” Alistair started. The smirks turned to open mouthed amazement. Alistair belted out a pitch perfect rendition of the song, pouting and strutting his stuff. Freddy Mercury was in the room.

 

When he finished, the room erupted in a roar of cheering. He walked back over to the machine and spoke into the mike before putting it down.

 

“Top that!” he said with a grin.

 

People were now eager to try. Jake and ‘Irish’ Stu were the Blues Brothers singing ‘Everybody Needs Somebody’. Pete and Jackie sang ‘I’ve Got You Babe’, which everyone thought was perfect for them.

 

Alice Dimaggio, the quietly spoken psychologist and councillor, selected a track and began.

 

“WELL-ELL-ELL-ELL-ELL-ELLL!” she sang with a voice like a chain saw cutting through a beer can. “You make me wanna shout!”

 

“You have gotta be kiddin’ me,” Pete said unbelieving.

 

The President gave her rendition of ‘I Did It My Way’, changing the words slightly to ‘I’ll do it my way’.

 

When it came to the Doctor and Rose’s turn, they grinned when they saw the only track that could possibly be made for them. They told everyone, and they meant everyone that they had to do the dance.

 

The Doctor started narrating. “It's astounding; Time is fleeting; Madness takes its toll. But listen closely..”

 

“Not for very much longer,” Rose replied.

 

“I've got to keep control. I remember doing the time-warp; Drinking those moments when; The Blackness would hit me,” the Doctor sang.

 

“And the void would be calling...” Rose sang back and then everyone joined in for the chorus.

 

“Let's do the time-warp agai-ain; let’s do the time-warp agai-ian.”

 

Everyone started doing the dance; even Harriet Jones was seen doing a pelvic thrust. It was hilarious, and after the song had finished she grinned saying that if any video of that appeared on youtube, people would be imprisoned with no chance of parole.

 

Alistair announced that the DJ had set up his decks in the ballroom and it was time for the bride and groom to have the first dance. Everyone moved into the main hall as the up beat ‘In The Mood’ started playing

 

The Doctor and Rose walked into the centre of the dance floor.

 

“You've got the moves?” she said, holding out her hand. “Show me your moves.”

 

He grinned at the memory, took her hand and pulled her in close. She had that tongue in her teeth smile on her face.

 

“You'll find your feet at the end of your legs. You may care to move them,” she giggled.

 

He did care to move them, and move them he did. They started dancing, the Doctor swirling Rose away from him and then swirling her back in. The crowd around the edge of the dance floor started clapping in time with the music.

 

Suddenly, they were back on the TARDIS, she in her jeans and union jack T-shirt, he with his big ears, daft grin and leather jacket. Jack Harkness was standing watching them with admiration; he could feel the love in the room.

 

They finished the dance with the Doctor tipping her backwards; Rose had one leg in the air. He did something he should have done in the TARDIS, he leaned forwards and kissed her, much to the enjoyment of the crowd.

 

They stood up grinning, he bowed and Rose curtsied. “It’s a shame Jack and Mickey couldn’t be here,” she said quietly.

 

“Yeah, Jack would have loved flirting with Alistair,” the Doctor laughed.

 

The DJ started his play list to get people in the party mood. He didn’t need to really, as the karaoke session had done it for him; they were ready to ‘parrr-teee’.

 

The mini bar in the reception hall was free and people were making good use of it. By the end of the night, the atmosphere rivalled that of any nightclub in London, and many clubbers agreed that it surpassed it.

 

While the DJ had his break, people rushed back to the karaoke to give their tilt on some of the classics, some unexpectedly good, and some that needed the police to investigate a murder.  

 

The second half of the night’s entertainment involved audience participation. There was a ‘sing off’ between the ushers and the bridesmaids, which really turned into a competition between Alistair and Alice. It was declared a draw.

 

Then there were songs that involved dancing. The Time-Warp, Prince Charming and Saturday Night Fever to name but a few.

 

It was the early hours of the morning when the songs slowed into smoochie tracks as people started to tire. The last dance was to Moonlight Serenade, another tune that brought back memories for the Doctor and Rose.

 

The DJ said goodnight and started packing up his gear as the last of the guests said their goodbyes and left. Arm in arm, the Doctor and Rose walked over to Pete and Jackie.

 

The Doctor shook Pete’s hand and then pulled him into a hug. “Thank you for an incredible day Pete.”

 

“It’s been my pleasure, the least I could do for my daughter and son-in-law,” he replied with a warm smile.

 

As Rose gave her Dad a hug and a kiss, the Doctor faced Jackie with a grin.

 

“Well then mother-in-law, how does it feel to have a part alien as a son-in-law?” he asked her.

 

She looked at him seriously. “You probably know that when I first met ya I didn’t take to ya,” she told him. “Too much weird stuff goin’ on with ya. But you’ve shown nothin’ but love an’ carin’ for my Rose, and I respect you for that.” She smiled. “Oh come here ya daft alien.” She grabbed him in a hug and kissed his cheek.

  
“Thanks Jackie, that means a lot to me, and it’ll mean a lot to Rose,” he said quietly in her ear.

 


	16. Living a life day after day. The one adventure we can share.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So this is it. Their forever that she promised him.

 

** Chapter Sixteen **

 

 

 

** Here we are, living a life day after day.  **

** The one adventure we can share.  **

 

 

They stood in the bridal suite of the castle facing each other at the foot of the four poster bed, holding each other’s hands.

 

“Well, Mrs Smith, my wife.”

 

“Well, Dr. Smith, my husband.” He giggled as he heard her say ‘my husband’.

 

“My wife! Mrs. Rose Smith, my wife. My very own wife.” He just loved the sound of it. He wanted to tell everyone in the world that Rose Marion Smith was his wife.

 

“So my lord and master, what would you have me do?” she asked him with a sultry voice and desire in her eyes.

 

“Er,” he squeaked. “First I have to give you something, something personal and private.” His voice was now back to it’s normal octave. Rose moved close and rubbed her body against him.

 

“Ooh, I like the sound of that,” she purred.

 

“No, no, it’s nothing like that, wellll, not just yet anyway. It’s this.” He spoke a word in Gallifreyan that resonated in her head. She knew immediately what it was because suddenly, on hearing that word, she could understand Gallifreyan.

 

Her mouth was open and her eyes wide in wonder. In that word, she saw the whole of his past. She saw his present, and she saw the infinite possibilities of his future, because that is what his name is.

 

His Gallifreyan name defined the whole of his life from birth to death, and it was beautiful. It was the sound of angels singing in a heavenly choir, water in a babbling brook, the wind blowing across a summer meadow, it was all of these and so much more.

 

Tears of absolute joy were trickling down her cheeks. To her amazement, she spoke back to him in Gallifreyan, thanking him for the most personal and private gift she had ever received.

 

{“And now my wife,”} he said in Gallifreyan, with a wicked smile. {“I want you to stand perfectly still.”}

 

He began to unlace her bodice until it was loose enough to slip down her body and he slowly and seductively started to undress her. When she was standing naked in front of him, he scooped her up and carried her to the bed and lay her down gently on the turned down bed.

 

And then, without breaking eye contact he took off his jacket, then his tunic. She admired his physique, the sparse, hairy chest, his well toned abdomen. He took off his boots and removed his trousers and underpants until he stood before her in all his glory.

 

He gently moved on top of her and she pulled the bedclothes over them. With great gentleness, thoughtfulness and reverence, they consummated their marriage.

 

Late the next morning, the Doctor and Rose wandered into the main hall for breakfast. Pete and Jackie were already there, along with members of Special Operations who had been staying in the turret suites.

 

Everyone smiled at them with looks that said ‘we know what you’ve been doing’. The newlyweds had a look on their faces that said ‘too right’.

 

 

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Pete Tyler was in his study, finishing some paperwork for Torchwood. It was Saturday afternoon and officially it should be a day off but it was easier to do the work now and have a clear desk on Monday. Besides, they had taken Tony to the park earlier and had a great time on the adventure playground and kicking a football around.

 

Jackie was in the lounge watching a rerun of one of her favourite dramas on the TV, when she heard the front door open and close. She could hear Alistair talking to someone, and then she heard.... Rose! They were back.

 

Jackie jumped up and headed for the door just as it opened and Rose walked into a hug, closely followed by the Doctor.

 

“Sweetheart, how was your honeymoon?” Jackie asked her.

 

“Oh Mum, it was fantastic!” It had been a typical Doctor and Rose holiday, a backpacking tour of the Far East, Vietnam and Cambodia, exploring jungles and ancient temples. Meeting interesting people, sampling their foods and lifestyles, and finishing on a beach in Thailand.

 

“Hello Jackie,” the Doctor said as he leant forward and kissed her cheek.

 

Pete came in behind them, having been told by Alistair that they had arrived. He hugged Rose and shook the Doctor’s hand.

 

"Where's Tony?" Rose asked her Mum, wanting to see her little brother. There might have been around 20 years difference between them but they were very close and Rose loved him to bits.

 

"He's at cub scouts, he'll be back at three. He's gettin' a lift back with one of his friends."

 

Rose and Jackie sat down on the sofa together while Pete and the Doctor sat on the chairs either side.

 

“So come on, tell us all about it then,” Jackie asked eagerly. She had been a bit dubious when they told her where they were going. Her idea of a honeymoon was a beach in the Maldives, not hiking through some steaming jungle.

 

The Doctor took his rugged Torchwood tablet PC out of the backpack they had brought with them and powered it up. It had all the photos on of their far eastern adventure, which they proceeded to show-and-tell.

 

Rose had taken photos of the landscapes and the incredible scenery, while the Doctor had gone for character shots of the locals. The elderly had the troughs and furrows of a hard life etched into their faces, and yet their smiles were genuine and pure.

 

They explained how, when they had left the airport they took a local charabanc to a nearby village rather than the coach to the city.

 

The tourist board had constructed a network of traditional huts that villagers maintained and took an income from. A backpacker would arrive, pay the elders for a nights stay and receive food and shelter for the night, before moving on the next day.

 

"Oh, John has a new girl friend," Rose said teasingly.

The Doctor laughed. "A female goat on the charabanc took a shine to me."

 

Pete and Jackie both noticed that Rose had called him John instead of the Doctor. They felt that it was a step in the right direction away from their old life and an acceptance of their new life together.

 

One of John's photos was of a beautiful young woman’s face, who was prepared for her Buddhist wedding ceremony. They explained that having stayed in the village for two days to explore a fascinating temple ruin, the villagers realised that they were newlyweds and invited them to a wedding.

 

John took photographs of the wedding and promised the family that he would send them the photographs in return for their generosity. This kind of travelling appealed to him now he had no TARDIS. He had told Rose, ‘there are five continents, hundreds of countries and seven billion people, and I’ve only met a handful of them so far’.

 

They had used various modes of transport to travel across Vietnam, through Cambodia to end up for a week in a luxury beach hotel in Thailand. Rose was delighted to learn that the far east countries in this world had avoided the horrors of their counterparts in her own.

 

Just as they were reaching the end of the photos, they heard the front door.

 

"ROSIE!" The three year old human cannon ball that was Tony Tyler shot into the room and launched himself at his big sister. Rose stooped down and scooped him up into a hug.

 

"Lil' Bro', how are you?" she asked with laughter in her voice.

 

Tony proceeded to tell her everything that had happened to him since she last saw him, this was important for a three year old. John looked lovingly at his wife; her infinite patience at listening to Tony filled him with love for this caring woman.

 

“You’ll be stayin’ for tea of course?” Jackie asked in a way that was more of a command than an offer of hospitality.

 

“We’d love to, if it’s no trouble,” John replied.

 

It was part way through the meal when John felt it. He wasn’t quite sure what the ‘it’ was but he had definitely heard, felt, sensed something. He looked at Rose and saw a fork full of salad poised before her mouth. She had a puzzled look on her face.

 

Then he knew what ‘it’ was that he had heard, felt, sensed. He spoke to her in Gallifreyan.

 

{“Rose, we need to talk in private,”} he told her.

 

She put the fork down. {“John? what was that?”}

 

He had a silly grin on his face. {“Let’s go into the drawing room and I’ll explain.”}

 

“Oi! What are you two jabberin’ about?” Jackie asked them.

 

“Er, I’ve just got to explain something to Rose and then I’ll tell you. No, we’ll tell you.” He grabbed Rose by the hand and hurried out of the room.

 

“What the hell was all that about?” Pete asked.

 

“Did you hear something back there Rose?” John asked her when they were alone in the drawing room.

 

“I’m not sure. It was like a distant, lone Gallifreyan voice in the darkness. What was it?”

 

John giggled. He actually giggled. “Do you really want to know? I mean really, all of it?”

 

“Just tell me already, you’re killin’ me here,” she laughed, caught up in his excitement.

 

“It was our son! His rudimentary consciousness was reaching out to his parents.” John just stood there in silence, grinning like an idiot. Rose on the other hand, just looked dumbfounded. “It was like a hiccup, or.... no, it was more like a gurgle.”

 

“Are you tellin’ me.... That we have a son somewhere.... And he’s tryin’ to talk to us?” she asked him. Was this one of those timey-wimey moments that Time Lords have?

 

“Wellll, we don’t actually have him yet. He’s got about 30 weeks of growing to do yet.” John patted her stomach. She looked down at her stomach and then back up at John.

 

Pete and Jackie dropped their cutlery as they heard a scream from outside the dining room. Tony was scared and looked to his mother for reassurance. They ran out of the room and down the hall to the drawing room, as Rose was pulling John through the door.

 

“Mum, Dad! I.... He.... We.... Oh tell them, tell them.” Rose was so excited about something that she couldn’t put a sentence together. John was holding her hand and radiating a smile they hadn’t seen before. Jackie and Pete had a feeling of deja vu.

 

“Jackie, Pete, you’re going to be grandparents,” John told them, his voice full of emotion.

 

Pete roared a cheer and Jackie squealed, she ran forward and enveloped them both in a hug and kissed their cheeks back and forth. Pete came up and turned it into a group hug.

 

“Mummy, what’s happening?” Tony asked, all confused with this grown up stuff.

 

Rose picked him up and hugged him. “You’re goin’ to be an uncle,” she told him. “I’m havin’ a baby.”

 

“When’s it due, when did you find out?” Jackie asked and got an awkward silence.

 

“Er, we don’t actually know when it’s due, my periods not due for a couple of weeks,” Rose told her. “And we found out a few minutes ago when his first thought called out to us.”

 

“Wha’?” Jackie and Pete said together. They looked at each other and back to the not-so-soon to be parents.

 

 

+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

 

 

John and Rose were sat in Pete’s office along with Andy McNab, Pete looked nervous.

 

“Okay, now please don’t shoot the messenger Rose, you know what your Mother is like,” Pete started hesitantly. “She has asked me to take you off field operations while you are pregnant.”

 

Rose had a face like thunder. “How dare she talk to you about how I do my job. She has no right! Tell her to mind her own fu....”

 

“ROSE!” Pete had got his hands up to placate her. “I told her no, I’m not taking you off field operations.”

 

“Too bloody right you’re not.” She had calmed down a bit, but was still angry. John held her hand and squeezed it in a sign of support.

 

“However,” Pete continued. “We do have some health and safety at work issues.” Pete knew what the Doctor and Rose were like. If they didn’t go looking for trouble, it would get lonely and come looking for them.

 

He knew he could use the law to try and curtail their ‘enthusiasm’ for adventure. He nodded to Andy who opened a folder that he had on his lap.

 

“As your section leader, I have a responsibility by law to ensure your safety and the safety of your unborn child,” he stated.

 

“I have to do a risk assessment of the following: Manual handling, shocks and vibrations, noise, radiation - ionising and non-ionising,” he started reading. Rose was looking more and more despondent.

 

“I don’t think you’ll be doing any diving or mining so we can ignore that. Infectious diseases, you’ll have to wait for John’s okay before making contact with any off worlders.

 

Toxic chemicals, facilities - including restrooms, mental and physical fatigue, working hours, stress, temperature, working with visual display units, working alone, working at height, travelling and violence.

 

Personal protective equipment and nutrition are already covered by normal Torchwood policies.”

 

“So I’m just goin’ to be wrapped in a ball of cotton wool and sat on a chair in the corner then,” she said, defeated.

 

“No, not at all,” Pete said. “Only, if we don’t jump through all these hoops and something happens, God forbid, then Andy and me get thrown in prison and.... Well imagine how you and John would feel.”

 

John turned and looked her in her beautiful, brown, slightly teary eyes.

 

“They’re right love, I know I would be devastated if anything happened to you or the baby, and I think you would too.” John then gave her one of his lopsided smiles. “And on the plus side, you don’t have to go down any sewers on a Weevil hunt.”

 

Rose gave him a laugh at that thought. “Yeah, I suppose you’re right.”

 

“Glad to hear it,” Pete said. “Your Mum was threatening to rearrange my genitals if I didn’t have this little talk.”

 

Andy handed a booklet to Rose. “That’s the stuff you need to know about. As John is your field partner anyway, he’ll be your health and safety assessor, so you have to do what he says.”

 

“That’ll be a first,” John said with a smirk.

 

Rose playfully slapped his arm. “Shut up,” she said with her ‘special-for-the-Doctor’ grin.

 

Over the next couple of months, Rose settled into her new role of field commander. She still got to go out on missions, and if John assessed the threat as minimal, she would be out on the ground with him. On other occasions she would sit in the M.I.V, directing the field agents, operating the remote devices and liaising with Torchwood dispatch.

 

On one occasion, they had a call to assist the police with an investigation. The Torchwood laboratories had a reputation second to none in forensic science and often supplied extra support to the police laboratories.

 

A memorable call for them was to the beach at Eastbourne and a mysterious object washed up there. Army Ordnance were called by the police, and they could not identify it as a bomb or mine and so they called Torchwood.

 

Rose was field commander in the M.I.V and sent the 'fly' to have a cursory look and then the robot to have a more detailed scan and analysis. John suspected that it was part of a life support system from an alien vessel that probably crashed in the sea.

They called for the recovery crew to collect it, and while they were waiting, John treated Rose, Jake and Julia to an ice cream cornet and a walk along the seafront.

 

In no time at all, it was twelve weeks into her pregnancy and time for her first ultrasound scan. John and Rose booked the day off and went to the antenatal clinic together.

 

The sonographer was pleasant and asked them if it was their first baby. She was showing them the various bits of anatomy on the monitor as they became visible.

 

“Do you want to know the sex of your baby?” she asked them smiling.

 

They looked at each other and giggled. “It’s a boy, we already know that,” Rose told her.

 

The sonographer looked puzzled but assumed they had paid privately to have a sexing scan. She finished the scan and reported that the baby was healthy and developing normally. They thanked the sonographer and left the clinic as John texted Pete and Jackie to tell them the news.

 

As they reached the Delorian, John’s phone started to play the theme from the Godfather.

 

“Ooh, that’s your father,” he told her.

 

Rose snorted a laugh. “He’ll kill you if he hears that.”

 

“Are you kiddin’, he’s already heard it and he loves it.... Pete, what can I do for you?” Rose watched him listening to her father, and the smile on his face.

 

“Your Mum wants to know if we got pictures,” he whispered. “Yeah, tell Jackie we got some good ones, we’ll bring them over later.”

 

 

+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

 

 

** Five years, seven months after arriving in Pete’s World  **

** (One year four months for the Doctor) **

 

 

“John?” Rose nudged him with her elbow.

 

“It’s alright love, I felt it. He’s ready.” He got out of bed and walked around to help Rose get up.

 

“Ooof! That’s the first contraction,” she breathed. “Do you know how long we’ve got?”

 

“Not a clue?” he giggled. “All I know is, he’s awake, he’s bored and he wants to come out.”

 

“Like father like son! Okay, so its good old human, count the minutes between the contractions then,” she said with a smile.

 

“Yep,” John said. “let’s go and have a shower and then I can go and put the kettle on”.

 

He took her hand and led her to the bathroom, where they enjoyed an intimate shower, washing one another’s bodies and hair.

 

“Ooh! There’s another one. Aaargh, there goes my waters,” Rose laughed, as John looked decidedly out of his comfort zone.

 

John gently towelled Rose dry and kissed her belly bump that was their son. “See you soon junior,” he said with a smile and left Rose to get dressed while he dried himself and pulled on a tracksuit.

 

Rose was having a water birth like her mother, it looked so relaxing and enjoyable that she had decided she wanted the same. She put on a baggy T-shirt and tracksuit and went downstairs to the kitchen where John had a mug of tea waiting for her.

 

“There you go, tannins and free radicals, that’s what you need,” he told her. She smiled at him as she rolled her eyes, took the offered mug and went into the living room to sit on the comfy sofa.

 

John came through and put some relaxing music on the stereo before sitting next to Rose and putting his arm around her shoulder. They sat and chatted, and every so often, John would check the clock when another contraction arrived.

 

When it was ten minutes from the last contraction, John phoned the hospital on the number they had been given and were told to make their way in.

 

“Well, here we go then,” he said, helping her up off the sofa. “Are you okay?”

 

“Yeah, just a bit nervous. I’ve never done anythin’ like this before,” she laughed.

 

He pulled her into a hug. “Well I have,” he said absently. “And you’ll be a natural.” He kissed her forehead.

 

Rose suddenly remembered that he’d told her once before that he had been a dad, but was reluctant to talk about it. They had been helping a child that had been possessed by an alien child called an isolus.

 

“Are you ever goin’ to tell me about that?” she asked him quietly.

 

He smiled at her. “Yeah, of course. I promise, but let’s get this one out first eh?”

 

She kissed him on the lips. “Okay, let’s get this show on the road.”

 

An hour later they were sitting in the birthing pool where John was massaging her shoulders and kissing her neck. He could feel her tension melting away under his fingers.

 

“Mmmm-ohhhh-arrrgh.” Another contraction wracked her body but John’s expert fingers stimulated acupressure points as he massaged her body, reducing the pain.

 

“Give us a long push there Rose,” the midwife told Rose as she growled and panted. She was squeezing John’s hand hard, determined that their son was coming out right now.

 

The midwife lifted a purplish-pink blob from under the water and placed it on Rose’s chest. The blob’s arms and legs shuddered as it let out a cry, suddenly ceasing to be a blob and becoming a beautiful baby, their beautiful baby.

 

“Oh Rose! Look what you’ve done. Look what we’ve produced,” John said, nearly in tears.

 

Rose was in tears, elated and exhausted at the same time. She gently stroked her son’s back and kissed his head.

 

“Oh my beautiful little boy,” she said. “He’s got your hair John,” she laughed.

 

Sure enough, where the midwife had gently rubbed him with a towel, he had little, sticky-up tufts of hair.

 

“Do you have a name for him,” the midwife asked them.

 

They looked at each other and smiled. “Eyulf Jackson,” they said together.

 

“Eyulf, what a great name. I don’t think I’ve heard that name before,” the midwife said.

 

“It’s Norwegian,” Rose told her. “It means ‘lucky wolf’.”

 

John saw the questioning look on the midwife’s face.

 

“Wolves have played an important part in our lives,” he told her. “And Jackson is in honour of a very good friend of ours.”

 

Rose’s emotions were all over the place. She remembered when her brother was born and she had thought she would never hold her own child. All the trials and tribulations that led to this moment came flooding back, the lever room, the beach in Norway, her exile in this world.

 

All those jumps with the dimension cannon to find her love, only to see him shot by a Dalek. Seeing his despair at the accusation of Davros and their impending doom at the hands of the Daleks. And then the miracle happened. His twin saving them, his twin who wasn’t a twin.

 

Her ‘mirror man’ who was the same man, definitely and absolutely the same man, the man that she loved. And against all the odds, this little bundle of Gallifreyan humanity on her chest was their forever that she had promised him all those years ago.

 

She reached up and stroked his cheek, turning her head to see his wonderful, contented smile. She showed him the smile that she saved only for him, the smile that lit up a room.

 

He leaned forwards and gave her a long, glorious, loving kiss.

 

“I love you Rose Tyler.”

  
“I love you Doctor, forever.”

 

The midwife had clamped off the umbilical cord and held out a pair of surgical scissors to John.

 

“Would ‘Dad’ like to cut the cord?” she asked them.

 

John’s smile spread across his face. “Dad, that’s me! I’m his Dad.”

 

Rose gave a laugh at his realisation and watched him carefully cut through the ‘rope’ of tissue.

 

“If you get out of the pool now John and get dressed, you can hold him while I help Rose out,” the midwife suggested.

 

He pushed himself up from behind Rose where she had been lying back against him and stepped out of the pool. He went into a small cubicle, removed his swimming trunks, dried himself off and put on his tracksuit.

 

When he returned to the small pool, baby Eyulf was wrapped in a white towel waiting for him. He sat in one of the comfortable chairs and cradled him in his elbow, watching Rose ease herself out of the pool.

 

She was wearing an oversized T-shirt that clung seductively to her body. There was a print of Homer Simpson holding his head saying ‘DOH!’ John grinned as he noticed that one of Homer’s eyes was directly over one of Rose’s nipples.

 

“Watcha grinnin’ at?” she asked him as she noticed him oggling her body.

 

“Homer’s got an eyeful,” he laughed.

 

She looked down and started to laugh at the sight, as did the midwife.

 

“Come on Rose, let’s get you dried off and in some pyjamas,” the midwife said, still chuckling at the T-shirt.

 


	17. Doing domestic

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Smiths return home, and the Doctor tries to explain his early life on Gallifrey. (Which ain't easy)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Most of the ideas for my stories start by asking a question about the show. This is one of the hardest, what was the Doctor’s early life on Gallifrey like? I have recently read Lungbarrow by Marc Platt, a ripping yarn (take notes and read it twice). The canon for his early life is very confusing and conflicting, so the following chapters are my attempt to reconcile some of it into a coherent timeline. I have used the concepts from 'Father's Day', and the 'year that never was', that people can remember two different accounts of the same event.

 

** Chapter Seventeen **

 

 

 

Rose was sitting up in bed in her private room, nursing her newborn son. They had decided to call him ‘EJ’ for short, and he was noisily enjoying his breakfast with snuffling, slurping and um, um, um noises.

 

John was sat in a chair mesmerised by the scene of his beautiful wife feeding his beautiful son. There was a gentle tap on the door and a nurse popped her head around the door.

 

“How’s it going Rose? Is he feeding well?” she asked.

 

Rose looked down as EJ was coming to the end of his feed and then looked up to the nurse, grinning. “He’s doin’ fine. Just gotta burp him now.”

 

“Ooh, can I do it?” John asked, jumping up out of the chair.

 

Rose rolled her eyes and smiled at him. “Yeah, go on then. I’ll make the most of this ‘til the novelty wears off,” she laughed.

 

The nurse gave a little laugh. “Your family are here Rose. Would you like me to show them in?”

 

“Oh yes please,” she said as she buttoned up her fluffy yellow pyjamas.

 

There was a loud belch from EJ, who startled himself with the noise, as Pete, Jackie and Tony entered the room. Tony was holding a blue foil balloon that said ‘Congratulations. It’s a boy!’

 

“That’s better out than in,” Jackie said with a laugh.

 

Pete and Jackie went to the bed and kissed Rose on the cheek. They had a card and some flowers for her.

 

“How are ya Sweetheart? Was it alright? Not too long was it?” Jackie asked her as they looked over at John patting EJ on the back as he rested over his shoulder.

 

“It was fine Mum. He came out quite quickly. Impatient like his father,” she said with a smile aimed at John.

 

“Would you like to hold him?” John asked Jackie as he brought him back to the cradle of his elbow.

 

Jackie sat down in the chair and held out her hands to receive her one and only grandson.

 

“Eyulf Jack Smith, this is your Grandmother,” John announced as he lowered him into the waiting arms.

 

“Oh Rose, he’s gorgeous. Look at his hair,” she cooed. EJ was scrutinising the face in front of him like newborns do.

 

Pete gently slapped John on the back and gave him a ‘well done’ smile.

 

“Eyulf Jack?” Pete said. “Good name for a Smith,” he told him.

 

“It means ‘lucky wolf’ in Norwegian. We thought after all that the name ‘bad wolf’ has done for us, it was about time we changed it to ‘lucky wolf’,” John told them.

 

“And Jack Harkness was such a good friend to us that we wanted to remember him in the name Jackson,” Rose added. John had walked over and sat on the bed, holding Rose’s hand. Tony came over and climbed up next to John to give them the balloon.

 

“Is he my brother? Will I be able to play with him?” Tony asked. “I want to teach him how to play football.”

 

John ruffled Tony’s hair and Rose hugged him.

 

“You’re his uncle really,” Rose told him. “But I bet you’ll be more like brothers. And when he grows up a bit, I bet he’ll love for you to teach him football.”

 

Pete had a cuddle as the proud granddad, and Tony laughed as EJ gripped his offered index finger.

 

They chatted and had a cup of tea off the trolley that was wheeled into the room. Rose was surprised that this tea didn’t stick to the roof of her mouth. Tony chose a bottle of Vitex cherry drink off the trolley and proudly told the volunteer that his daddy made it.

 

“Oh, of course. Mr and Mrs. Tyler, it’s a real pleasure to meet you,” the woman said. “And this must be your grandson. You must be very proud.”

 

“It’s nice to meet you,” Jackie said. “And we are very proud, yes. Oh, and a lovely cup of tea by the way,” she added.

 

The look of pride on the woman’s face filled the room. “Very nice of you to say so,” she said as she left them to their celebrations.

 

“So when do you get to go home then?” Jackie asked Rose.

 

“The consultant will do his rounds after lunch, check EJ over and then if everythin’s okay, we can go,” she replied.

 

“We’ll leave you to get some rest then and talk to ya later.” Jackie had a final cuddle of her grandson, kissed his head and handed him back to Rose. After kissing and hugging, the Tylers left the room and John continued to sit, holding Rose’s hand and stroking his son’s back.

 

 

+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-

 

 

The Smith’s residence was a stunning interior designed Victorian house in Northumberland Place, one of the prettiest tree lined streets in Notting Hill, situated at the heart of Artesian village.

 

It was a white fronted town house with black railings and columns either side of the door. Unusually, it had a space at the front for parking Delores the Delorian.

 

They had a bespoke Bulthaup kitchen/dining room which lead to a decked garden. The raised ground floor double reception room had the traditional high ceilings, with intricate ceiling roses and cornicing, feature fireplaces and traditional shutters on the windows. This was their living room where they watched TV and listened to music while cuddling on the comfy sofa.

 

The first floor had a master suite and two double bedrooms, one of which had been converted into the nursery. Naturally it had a time and space theme to it, with glow-in-the-dark stars on the ceiling which accurately depicted the constellations in the night sky. On the border around the room, John had drawn Gallifreyan symbols that told the story of their arrival in ‘Pete’s World’.

 

The studies on the ground and first floors were an office for Rose and John respectively and one of the three spacious storage vaults to the front of the house had been converted into a laboratory/workshop for John.

 

The whole house had a ‘brain’ like the Delorian and took care of security, lighting, heating, multimedia, robotic vacuum cleaners, etc, so as John and Rose walked up the steps, the security camera identified them and opened the door for them.

 

John had explained to Rose that like the TARDIS, the chapter houses on Gallifrey were grown and had sentience and personality. They had joked about creating a personality for their house. Rose suggested Jack Harkness and burst into fits of laughter when John said he would not live in a house that kept flirting with him every five minutes.

 

But really, there was only one choice for their house; they both agreed it was a fitting tribute.

 

“Welcome home,” Donna Noble’s voice said. “Would you like me to put the kettle on?”

 

“Ooh, that would be lovely,” Rose said as she dropped her bag in the hall. John was carrying EJ in the baby car seat which converted into a carrycot, and set him down by the sofa.

 

“Make yourself comfortable love, I’ll go and make the tea.” He gave her a quick snog and went through to the kitchen.

 

“Mmmm,” she said as he left the room. “TV, sky news please Donna.”

 

Rose took EJ out of the carrycot and started to unwrap him from his outdoor all-in-one as the TV switched on.

 

“Is that the new arrival?” Donna-the-house asked.

 

Rose propped EJ on her knee, facing one of the discrete cameras in the room. “Yes Donna, this is EJ.”

 

“Ooh, he’s so cute. Welcome home EJ.”

 

John came in from the kitchen and placed the mugs on the low table in front of the sofa before sitting on the sofa and cuddling up. After finishing their mugs of tea, Rose looked into John’s eyes.

 

When she had gone into labour that morning, she told him she hadn’t done this before and she was scared. He had absently said that he had and that she would be fine.

 

She asked him if he would ever tell her about him being a dad and he said he would, but now.... It didn’t seem important. He obviously didn’t want to talk about it, and she didn’t want to cause him any pain by remembering things and people long gone.

 

“John? you know when you said you had done this before, and I asked if you would tell me about it? Well, you don’t have to. I’ll understand if it’s all too much for you.”

 

He rested his head against hers and gave her shoulder a squeeze.

 

“Rose,” he said quietly, his voice almost breaking. “I really don’t deserve you. You are the most caring and compassionate person I think I have ever met. Single handedly, you alone have taught me what it is to be human. And you are my wife, you need to know my past, how it shaped me into the person you came to love.”

 

“I need to explain some things first. Do you want a beer or a glass of wine?” he asked her.

 

“Y’know, I haven’t had a drink for nine months. An ice cold beer would be brilliant,” she said as she gently rocked the sleeping EJ.

 

John went to the fridge and poured a couple of beers into glasses and came back to cuddle Rose after handing her the beer.

 

"You know my Gallifreyan name translates as a promise {Never cruel or cowardly. Never give up, never give in.}?" he asked her.

 

Rose nodded; she got all that when he gave her his Gallifreyan name after their wedding.

 

 

“Well, my family name is Lungbarrow. For millennia, Gallifreyan’s we were afflicted by a sort of ‘curse’, an inability to reproduce naturally. Rassilon, the founder of the Time Lord dynasty, instigated a genetic splicing technique that allowed parents to have their TNA combined in vitro and embryos to be nurtured in ‘looms’. Each chapter house had its own loom.”

 

They took a sip of their beers before he continued. Rose was silent, hanging on every word. It was the most he had ever told her about his life back home, and there was more to come.

 

“Now, the weird thing is, I seem to have had two childhoods,” he told her in all seriousness. “One before the infertility, and one after.”

 

Rose sputtered her beer. “Wha’? Two? How is that even possible?” she asked, and then said. “Don’t tell me; let me guess, ‘it’s complicated’.”

 

John grinned at her, his eyes sparkling. “It must have been, because I don’t know why I have two lots of memories.” He remembered a time when he was travelling with Martha and a young woman stopped him in the street.

 

“Do you remember me telling you about the ‘weeping angels’ that stole the TARDIS that once?” he asked her.

 

“Yeah, you said someone gave you a message to give back to them in the future, I think. What’s that got to do with having two childhoods?”

 

“It was Sally Sparrow, I remember telling her ‘look, sorry, I've got a bit of a complex life. Things don't always happen to me in quite the right order’,” he explained.

 

“And do you think that’s what happened to your childhood?”

 

“It could be, similar to your childhood really, when your Mum told you about the woman who held your Dad’s hand when he died.”

 

“Oh yeah, I see what you mean.” It had been Rose that her Mum had seen.

 

“Well, I digress.”

 

“As usual,” she said with a grin.

 

“Let’s start with my first memories. As my name suggests, I was a bit of a ‘wild child’, I got that from my father, Ulysses. My mother, Penelope, was a science lecturer and had infinite patience with me.”

 

John sighed and had a sad look on his face. “I must have been a great disappointment to her.”

 

Rose immediately squeezed his hand and kissed his cheek. “You stop that right now mister. Don’t forget, I saw a world without you when Donna couldn’t save you. It was a hell on Earth. Okay, people died, but the civilisations, the worlds, even the universes you’ve saved, any mother would be proud of a son who had achieved all that.”

 

Rose was referring to the time when she had met Donna Noble using the ‘dimension cannon’ and she had a ‘time-beetle’ on her back that was causing an alternate time line.

 

“Aw, there you go again Rose, seeing the best in people. But you haven’t heard the whole of the story yet. By the way, are you going to be okay with me telling you about the ‘other women’ in my life?” he asked her.

 

Rose was curled up on the sofa, leaning against his chest. She looked up at him and smiled. “What, like Sarah Jane and Rennette?” she replied, sipping her beer.

 

He ran his hand through his hair. “Welll, sort of, but these were my first loves.”

 

Rose stroked his cheek. “You know about Jimmy and Mickey, they were before I met you. Are you okay with that?”

 

“Actually, I feel a bit guilty about Mickey. I feel like I stole his girl from him,” he told her, pulling his ear.

 

“NO! Don’t go there,” she told him. “Me an’ Mickey had a good time an’ all that, but it was comfortable, y’know convenient. We were never goin’ to set the world on fire.”

 

She gave him her tongue through the teeth smile. “You on the other hand, you set my whole universe on fire.”

 

He leant forward and snogged her before continuing.

 

“Another chapter house on Gallifrey was Blyledge, it was an old family, one of the senior members of the Prydon Chapter. They were a bit snobbish and the Lungbarrows never really got on with them, except for a niece of old man Blyledge.” He waggled his eyebrows at Rose.

 

“I saw our timelines, that they could converge, but I didn’t seem to be able to attract her attention. I was a bit of a ‘wet’ teenager back then.” John stopped talking and a grin started to spread across his face.

 

“Y’know Rose, rather than tell you about all this, why don’t I show you?” he said.

 

“Show me? What d’ya mean?” she asked him.

 

“I can relive the events in my mind with you in there as well, it’ll only take a couple of minutes and you can get all of the events, the dialogue and emotions,” he told her.

 

“I don’t know. Is it safe? Will EJ be alright while we’re in there?” she asked.

 

“It’s perfectly safe. You’ll still be aware of everything going on in the room; it’ll be just like watching a play on TV.”

 

“Yeah, okay then, I’ll give it a go.”

 

They finished their beers and then, still cradling EJ, she sat facing John. He put his fingers on her temples and gently invited her into his mind.

 


	18. Memories

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapter deals with his parentage mentioned on the Tardis Data Core from The Gallifrey Chronicles novel. Many thanks to Mr. W. Shakespear for the plot idea.

 

** Chapter Eighteen **

 

 

 

They were standing in the pedestrian square of a large city, with fountains, raised flower beds and trees all around. Rose was turning in a slow circle taking in the scene; EJ was asleep in her arms.

 

“Oh, this is beautiful John. Look at that sky,” Rose said. Between the skyscrapers she could see the orange sky. The upper city spanned the lower on vast arches. These were crowned by further arches and bridges, all of them carrying buildings and gardens, domes and belfries. “Where are we?”

 

“We’re in the old Citadel on Gallifrey,” he replied quietly. Rose saw that he had a sad, melancholy look in his moist eyes.

 

“Oh John! This must be so hard for you. Are you sure you want to do this?” Rose asked him.

 

He took a deep breath in and smiled at her. “Yeah, I’ll be fine. It’s just a memory, took me by surprise is all.” He started to look around the square.

 

“Ah, there I am, over there.” He took her hand and walked across the square to a Gallifreyan version of a coffee shop with tables and chairs outside.

 

“Which one’s you?” she whispered.

 

John pointed to a skinny youth with black hair, swept back off his high forehead and a distinctive aquiline nose. He was sitting with group of ten youths who were laughing and joking with each other.

 

“That’s a different look for you,” Rose said. “Those striking features are quite handsome.”

 

“Thank you,” John said waggling his eyebrows and grinning.

 

“Who’re the other guys?” Rose asked with interest.

 

“They are the other members of what became known as the Deca, ten friends who studied together at the academy. They are teasing me about my shyness with the opposite sex, except for my friend Koshei, I think he’s giving me some advice on how to catch the eye of Rassalia. She was my first crush.”

 

John and Rose took seats at a table next to them and eavesdropped in on the conversation.

 

“Have you just tried going up to her and asking her out?” Koschei asked the First Doctor.

 

“Welllll,” He ran his hand through his hair, sweeping it back over his head.

 

Rose giggled at the gesture. “You still do that,” she whispered.

 

The First Doctor continued. “I did try to position myself once so that she would walk by me, but she looked at me with those emerald eyes and smiled at me and.... and, I lost control of my tongue. My hearts were pounding and I thought I was going to faint.”

 

Rose snorted a laugh and John looked at her with a raised eyebrow.

 

“I’m sorry,” she laughed. “It’s just that, thousands of light years from Earth, teenage lads still can’t ask a girl out.”

 

“I’ll have you know that for a teenage lad with no confidence, asking a girl out is scarier than pinning a tail on a Dalek,” he told her in all seriousness. “It’s alright for you girls, you just have to stand about fluttering your eyelashes and wait to be asked. You hold dominion over our futures with a simple yes or no. Anyway, shush, you’re missing the plot.”

 

“I know! The Blyledge’s are throwing one of their famous parties soon, she’s bound to be there, being a niece and all,” Koschei said.

 

“And how is a Lungbarrow going to get invited to one of their parties? They hate the sight of us, and if I try to gatecrash those brothers will really enjoy pounding me into the dirt,” the First Doctor replied.

 

“Ooh, you’re always so negative. I don’t know why I bother. Look, the Hot Five have got an invite to do the gig there, apparently Blyledge’s daughter is a fan of our music,” Koschei told him.

 

The Hot Five was their college band where Koschei played drums and the First Doctor played a rhythm guitar-like instrument along with three other college friends playing lead, bass and keyboard.

 

“You’ve got a good friend there John,” Rose smiled.

 

John’s face was sad with a faraway look in his eyes. “Had a good friend Rose, had. This was a long time ago and people change.”

 

John’s memories now jumped forwards to the night of the party, and they were standing in a large ballroom in what appeared to be a palace, surrounded by hundreds of party goers.

 

The Hot Five band was playing a pleasant mix of background music while guests helped themselves to drinks and nibbles before the dancing started. The band leader Rallon announced that they were taking a short break before they started playing some of their popular college hits.

 

They went to the drinks table to get some refreshments. The First Doctor was looking around for the target of his affections.

 

He leaned towards Koschei. “Can you see her anywhere?” he asked.

 

“Hang on,” Koschei said. “Ushas, can you see Rasshalia anywhere?”

 

Ushas was the bass player and stood head and shoulders above the rest of them. He bobbed his head around looking over the crowd.

 

“Just coming into the room from the direction of the bathroom and heading this way,” he told them, pointing in the direction that she was approaching from.

 

Koschei slapped the First Doctor on the back. “Okay, here you go. Good luck.”

 

The First Doctor started stalking his prey through the throng of guest, while trying to avoid being spotted by a member of the Blyledge family. The target of his affection was a pretty young woman with dark copper hair and iridescent green eyes.

 

“I can see why you had a crush on her,” Rose said. “She’s stunning.”

 

He was passing the table that contained bottles of drinks and bowls of punch. He was getting closer to the object of his desire, and if he could move around the table at the right moment he could ask her if she wanted a drink. Brilliant!

 

Just as he was about to make his move, a young woman slipped on the floor where a drink had been spilt. He caught her by the elbow and steadied her before she could fall over.

 

“Careful,” he said as he brought her upright. ‘Wow’, he thought to himself as he felt time surge through his body, ‘what was that’?

 

“Th.. thank you,” the woman said as he stood up and looked into her eyes.

 

They had both felt it, the converging of their timelines into a fixed point. Rose could see something pass between them in that look.

 

“Hello,” the First Doctor said simply, smiling like an idiot.

 

“Hello,” the young woman replied, smiling back.

 

Rose looked at John, uncertain as to the turn of events. He had tears in his eyes.

 

“Rose, meet my first wife, Juleshka,” he said.

 

“Wha? I thought it was the red head over there,” she said looking over her shoulder.

 

“So did I, until I literally bumped into this beauty here,” he said with a warm smile on his face.

 

Rose came and gave his hand a squeeze as she inspected his first wife. She was a dead ringer for a young Audrey Hepburn with shoulder length wavy brown hair.

 

Flustered, the First Doctor quickly grabbed a napkin and wiped the floor. “Well, that should stop anyone else from slipping,” he said, dropping the wet napkin onto a dirty plate.

 

“And does the man who saved me from a fall have a name?” she asked him.

 

He had to think quick. If he gave her his real name, he would be found out and pounded to a pulp by the Blyledge brothers.

 

“Er, I’m the Doctor,” he said.

 

“Doctor who?” she asked with a smile.

 

“Now there’s a question. Just the Doctor for now,” he said with an air of mystery.

 

The young woman smiled at him coyly. “Well, ‘Just The Doctor For Now’, maybe I could find out later.”

 

“Er, yes, maybe you could,” he squeaked.

 

Rose grinned. “Now that was better, your tongue was workin’ properly then.”

 

“Yeah, unfortunately talking to her just seemed so natural.”

 

“What d’ya mean ‘unfortunately’?” Rose asked with a puzzled expression.

 

“It was complicated, here, I’ll show you.” John jumped forward in his memories to the next day at the academy, where he was talking to Koschei.

 

“Are you crazy?!” Koschei was asking him. “Do you know who she is?”

 

“She’s the girl I’m going to marry,” the First Doctor said with a dreamy smile.

 

Koschei screwed up his eyes and rubbed his temples. “You can’t you idiot! She’s the daughter of old man Blyledge, who is to be married to the heir of Brightshore. It’s all about the wealth and the power,” he told him.

 

“You still getting those drumming headaches?” the First Doctor asked his friend as he watched him pop a tablet out of a foil packet and swallow it.

 

“Yeah, and you flirting with Blyledge’s daughter isn’t helping,” he said with a weak smile.

 

John turned to Rose. “This incident put a strain on our friendship from then on. Also, I think the medication he was on for his mysterious headaches changed his character. We started to drift apart after this.”

 

“With all this animosity between the families, how did you convince her parents to let you marry her?” Rose asked.

 

John’s memories went back to the Blyledge’s mansion. The First Doctor stood hand in hand with Juleshka facing her disapproving parents. Lord Blyledge was a short, balding, plump man with a look of contempt on his face.

 

“You want to marry this.... this.... musician?!” he said incredulously.

 

“I’m not a musician,” the First Doctor said. “Well, actually I suppose I am really. But that’s just my hobby; I’m a student at....”

 

“BE SILENT YOU IMBECILE!” Blyledge shouted. “My daughter is marrying the heir of Brightshore. The arrangements are already being made as we speak.”

 

“But father, our timelines converged, we felt it. Who are we to defy a fixed point in time?” Juleshka pleaded.

 

Lady Blylege, who Rose thought resembled a heron, spoke to her daughter. “Juleshka my dear, your future lies with the Brightshores, not with the.... Lungbarrows.” She said the name with disgust.

 

“But mother....” she started.

 

“We have spoken! You will go to your room, and you young man will be escorted off the premises by my security,” Lord Blyledge said with authority. “And if I see you around here again, I’ll have you arrested for trespassing.”

 

Juleshka looked back at the First Doctor with tears in her eyes as Lady Blyledge led her daughter towards the door. The First Doctor’s face was like thunder. Rose had seen that look in his eyes before, in his ninth and tenth incarnation, when there was an injustice to be put right.

 

Blyledge clicked his fingers in the air and a security guard approached. “Have him thrown out, and don’t be gentle.”

 

The First Doctor allowed himself to be dragged out of the room, but his eyes never left Blyledge’s. He had ‘that’ smile on his face, the one that said ‘you’ll regret crossing me’.

 

Rose looked up at John with a worried expression, but John was smiling. He saw her looking at him. “Hey, don’t look so worried. Did I tell you I was a bit of a ‘wild child’?”

 

He took her hand and stepped forwards into another memory. They were now in a kitchen and an attractive redheaded woman was dabbing the First Doctor’s bruised and bloodied lip with a clean cloth dipped in an antiseptic liquid.

 

“Rose, this is my mother, Penelope,” John told her.

 

Rose looked at the woman tending to her son. She had beautiful, wavy red hair that reached past her shoulders. Her eyes were steel blue that radiated kindness and concern, her lips were full and had a warm, comforting smile.

 

“It didn’t go well then?” she asked her son. He winced as the stinging cloth touched his injured lip.

 

“You could say that,” he replied. “More accurately though, it didn’t go at all.”

 

A grey haired, grey bearded man walk into the kitchen. “We did try to warn you,” he said. “I’ve known that pompous, egotistical, intolerant little shit for more years than I care to remember.”

 

John laughed at that statement. “And this Rose, is my Father, Ulysses.”

 

The first thing Rose noticed were the eyes, he had John’s eyes. No actually, John had his father’s eyes, they were brown and intense. He had a square jaw framed by a neatly trimmed beard, and a mouth that would easily crack into a smile.

 

“So is that it then? You going to let that little shit call the shots?” his father asked him.

 

“Ule!” Penelope chastised, but her son was already primed.

 

“Like hell I am! It’s like I told you, when we touched, I felt the whole of time and space pass between us, through us. No one, and I mean no one is going to come between us,” he said.

 

His father slapped him on his back, making him wince. “That’s my boy,” he said with a huge grin and a twinkle in his eye. Rose had seen that look before as well.

 

“I like him,” Rose said. “I can see a lot of you in him.”

 

“Yeah, he was great,” John said simply.

 

“So what happens next?” Rose asked excitedly.

 

They were outside the Blyledge mansion at night. A dark figure flitted across the lawns from one privet bush to the next until he reached the exterior wall next to where John and Rose were standing.

 

He took a briefcase sized pack off his back and put it on the ground under a window, opened it and started to pull out a ladder. It went up and up to the first floor window.

 

John saw Rose’s eyes wide in wonder. “Time Lord technology,” he said with a grin. “It’s bigger on the inside.”

 

The dark figure shimmied up the ladder and gently tapped the window. The window opened and a bag was passed out, which was taken down by the dark figure. Another dark figure climbed out of the window and descended the ladder into a passionate kiss and embrace.

 

The ladder was reeled back into the backpack and, hand-in-hand they sneaked back the way he had come.

 

“You’re elopin’!” Rose said incredulously.

 

“Yep!” John said with a grin, popping the ‘p’.

 

Rose and John were now sitting in the backseat of a vehicle parked outside Blyledge House, as the two figures approached and got into the front seats. They removed their balaclava hoods and grinned at each other. The First Doctor pulled Juleshka into a snog which made Rose blush.

 

“Is it gettin’ warm in here?” Rose asked. John just laughed.

 

“Mmmm, we [kiss], really [kiss], need to get [kiss], going [kiss].” Juleshka said breathlessly.

 

“Oh, yes, right,” the First Doctor replied. He switched on the vehicle and it silently pulled away.

 

It was now daylight and Rose could see they were approaching a small town in the distance. They were driving past fields of red grass and woods of silver leaved trees. In the centre of town they found a vehicle park that was attached to the municipal building.

 

Rose and John trailed behind the First Doctor and Juleshka as they walked down a passage way onto the main street. At the steps leading into the municipal building they saw some familiar faces.

 

Ulysses took his son’s hand and then pulled him into a hug. Penelope kissed and hugged Juleshka. As the First Doctor hugged and kissed his mother, Ulysses kissed his soon to be daughter-in-law.

 

“How’s your father?” he asked her with a glint of mischief in his eyes.

 

“As intransigent as ever,” she said, rolling her eyes and smiling.

 

Ulysses chuckled. “Well, his loss is our gain. Come on, there are some changing rooms inside.”

 

“Who’s the guy with the moustache?” Rose asked.

 

“Oh, that’s my brother Braxiatel, he’s my best man,” John told her.

 

“You’re getting married? Here? Now? Oh that’s brilliant!” Rose said and then realised what he had just said. “You have a brother!? You’re just full of surprises, aren’t you?”

 

Juleshka was wearing a traditional blue, Gallifreyan gown that fastened over one shoulder. The silver belt had a round buckle that was a Gallifreyan symbol. The First Doctor wore traditional deep red trousers and tunic, over which he wore an open coat of the same colour with a wide golden border inscribed with Gallifreyan writing.

 

John and Rose sat at the back of the room, hand-in-hand, watching the ceremony. The cardinal wrapped a strip of golden cloth around Jueshka’s hand and she held it out towards the First Doctor. He took the end of the cloth and wrapped it around his own hand.

 

“Who speaks for the bride?” the cardinal asked.

 

Braxiatel stepped forwards. “I consent and gladly give,” he chanted.

 

“Who speaks for the groom?” the cardinal asked again.

 

Ulysses stepped forwards, beaming a smile at them. “I consent and gladly give.”

 

Penelope also stepped forward. “I consent and gladly give,” she said with solemnity.

 

“The couple will now exchange that which no other may know,” the cardinal announced.

 

The First Doctor leaned forwards and whispered in Juleshka’s ear. Rose saw a smile spread across her face. She then leaned forwards and whispered in the First Doctor’s ear. He waggled his eyebrows and grinned in a way that Rose immediately recognised. It may have been a different face, but the mannerisms were the same.

 

The cardinal smiled at them both. “You may now kiss, husband and wife.”

 

The First Doctor cupped her face in his hands and gently brushed her lips with his. He tilted his head and did it again with more pressure, and then again until they were in a full blown snog-fest.

 

Ulysses pulled Penelope close and snogged her, and John put his arm around Rose and snogged her.

 


	19. Past lives

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rose finally finds out why the Doctor was reluctant to commit to a relationship. Descriptions of Lungbarrow House are from the novel Lungbarrow by Marc Platt.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (If you are interested, I borrowed the funeral speech from the Tao Te Ching.)

 

** Chapter Nineteen **

 

 

 

“WHERE IS SHE?” Blyledge shouted as he tried to push through the door of Lungbarrow house.

 

He met the immovable wall of Ulysses, who was taller and more muscular.

 

“Blyledge old man. Fancy seeing you here. I don’t think you’ve darkened our door before, have you?” Ulysses said sarcastically.

 

“You can cut the crap Lungbarrow. Where’s my daughter?” he raged.

 

“My daughter-in-law and my son are preparing to leave for their honeymoon. It’s a pity you couldn’t make it to the wedding, but you weren’t invited. They wanted it to be a happy occasion.”

 

Oh he was enjoying this; the pompous old sod looked like he was fit to explode.

 

“MARRIED! IMPOSSIBLE!” he shouted.

 

“Is everything alright dear?” Penelope asked, walking to the door and standing beside her husband. “Oh hello Blyledge, how’s that shrew of a wife of yours? Still spreading malicious gossip these days?”

 

“Penelope!” her husband’s eyebrows were raised in surprise. He rarely heard her speak ill of anyone.

 

“I’LL HAVE THE SHAM OF A MARRIAGE ANNULLED!” the red faced man declared.

 

“Oh I don’t think so,” Ulysses told him quietly. “When they told me their plan to wed, I pre-registered the request with a cardinal and made all the preparations for them. I’m afraid everything is legal and air tight. They are married, and that’s that.”

 

“Oh, hello Daddy,” Juleshka said as she squeezed between her parents-in-law. “I thought I heard your voice, have you come to wish us well?”

 

“WISH YOU WELL...!?”

 

“Oh thank you Daddy,” She reached up, pecked him on the cheek and disappeared back inside the house before he could continue.

 

Blyledge was speechless. He’d been completely outmaneuvered.

 

“Well, if that’s everything old man,” Ulysses said in a friendly tone. “You’d best be going, or would you like my son to escort you off the property? I’m sure he would love to return the favour.” He gently closed the large door in the man’s very red, almost purple face.

 

Ulysses lifted Penelope off the floor in a hug and spun her around.

 

Rose jumped up and down on the spot applauding. “Oh that was SO satisfyin’,” she said. She turned and hugged John around the neck.

 

“So you’re okay with watching your husband and his first wife getting married and going on honeymoon?” John asked her.

 

“Yeah, it’s just so good to see you having a family life after all that time alone on the TARDIS. You never told me about any of this,” she told him.

 

She started to look around the opulent surroundings, realising that she was in some sort of palace.

 

“Where exactly are we John?”

 

He gave her one of his grins. “This is the chapter house of the Lungbarrow family, my home where I grew up,” he told her.

 

They were now standing at a window looking out over flower beds, red grassed lawns, and a magnificent view of the Cadonflood river valley beyond.

 

“The house is situated on the slopes of Lung Mountain in the Cadon range, and I have a suite of rooms here, as does my brother.”

 

“You call this a house?” she said incredulously. “It’s a bleedin’ palace.”

 

John looked around and nodded. “Yeah, I suppose it is. Like a TARDIS, it’s bigger on the inside, and this was in its hay day before the fall of Pythia.”

 

They saw the First Doctor and Juleshka come down the stairs with some cases and stop by the front door. They went out to the vehicle and loaded the cases in the boot. Hugging his parents, they said goodbye and drove off towards the coast and a memorable honeymoon.

 

John and Rose walked right through the window into the gardens. They could do that in a memory.

 

“I don’t think we need to see the honeymoon,” John said, waggling his eyebrows.

 

Rose giggled. “Certainly not, especially if it’s anythin’ like ours,” she said with her tongue in teeth smile.

 

Arm in arm they ambled across the lawn towards an orchard where magenta fruits were ripening. Alien insects hummed and buzzed around the trees and bushes, as birds sang their songs of ownership and courtship.

 

“It’s so peaceful here, you must have had a lovely childhood,” Rose said with a contented sigh.

 

Suddenly, the laughter of children could be heard from the lawn behind them. Rose could see the First Doctor as a child with his brother and friends, playing with a floating ball that flitted about, trying not to be caught.

 

They faded as the scene changed to a dark night on the side of a mountain. A man and a boy were sitting on rocks looking up at the night sky, a small camp was nearby with a portable stove and rigid tent.

 

“My Dad brought me up here to see the meteor shower,” John told her as he put an arm around her shoulders.

 

As they looked up, they saw multi-coloured streaks of light shoot across the sky. The look of wonder sparkled in the boys eyes as they reflected the celestial light show. Ulysses put an arm around his son’s shoulder and pulled him in close, kissing him lovingly on the top of his head.

 

Rose realised that he was showing her some of his favourite memories, as you would when looking through an old family photo album. And she loved him for it, for finally letting go of his fear and trusting her to see him for who he was (whoever that might be).

 

They heard a faint ‘phutt-phutt’ sound and then the smell hit them.

 

“Ugh! I didn’t know you got smells in memories, I suppose that answers the question of whether bears shit in the woods,” Rose said with a laugh.

 

John gave a laugh and nodded at the bundle in her arms. “That’s no bear, that’s our son.”

 

They were sat on their comfy sofa in their living room and Rose lifted EJ up and sniffed his bottom, immediately wishing she hadn’t.

 

“Phew!” she laughed. “Time for a nappy change I think.”

 

“You pop his baby-grow off and I’ll get the changing mat and box,” John suggested.

 

A smell of freshly cut flowers permeated the room. “I’ve turned up the air recycling,” Donna-the-house announced.

 

“Thanks Donna, you’re a star,” Rose replied.

 

After John had finished blowing raspberries on EJ’s belly, he fastened up his baby-grow and joined Rose on the sofa. He couldn’t resist picking up his son and cradling him in the crook of his elbow. The look of contentment on his face almost made Rose cry.

 

They were back in Lungbarrow House, where they could see the First Doctor and his wife sitting on a sofa, with other people standing by them looking at a small bundle in the First Doctor’s arms. Orange sunlight was shining through the windows, giving the room a warm glow.

 

Rose walked over to the group and watched as the First Doctor handed a baby to his mother to hold.

 

“And who’s this then?” Rose asked John.

 

“Oh she’s gorgeous,” Penelope cooed. “Hello granddaughter.”

 

“That Rose, is my daughter, Challessetianelopeshkaturgrathadeyyilungbarrowmas,” John told her. Rose peeked over Penelope’s shoulder to get a better look. “Challese for short.”

 

“Ahhh, she’s so cute,” Rose said.

 

“Yeah. These were happy times for us, I always remember this period with a smile.”

 

Rose looked closely at John’s face. It was different, the dark, brooding, haunted look that was always behind his eyes, even when he smiled, was gone. It had been replaced by a look of peace and tranquillity. These memories were actually therapeutic and Rose wanted more for him.

 

“D’ya have other happy memories that you can show me?” Rose asked, smiling fondly at her husband.

 

“Yeah, hundreds of years of them,” he told her and proceeded to show her Challese growing up through her prolonged Gallifreyan childhood.

 

They faded into an apartment of rooms in the house where the First Doctor and Juleshka were sat on the floor as their daughter took her first faltering steps from one to the other.

 

Now, Challese was a toddler in the park, being pushed on a swing by her father, with a now pregnant Juleshka sitting on a bench watching them fondly.

 

“You’re havin’ another one?” Rose asked with her voice full of surprise. She had never really thought that he might have a large family. “How many kids have you got?”

 

A fleeting emotion showed on his face as he was about to correct her present tense to past, but he thought better of it. She was having such a good time exploring his memories.

 

“We had two daughters and two sons. That ‘bump’ there is our first son,” he said with a smile. He looked down at Rose and found that he couldn’t read her expression.

 

“Are you sure you’re okay with this?” Rose shuddered out of her thoughts.

 

“Wha? Oh, yeah. It was just that I never really thought of you havin’ a life before the TARDIS is all. I’ve only ever known you in the TARDIS.”

 

“Well watch and learn.” He gave her a wink and a grin as she saw each of the remaining children appear. His son Arren, another son Jarred and then a daughter Penni (all abbreviated from their full names).

 

Rose noted without comment that Juleshka had wisps of grey hair appearing in her wavy brown locks and laughter lines were becoming more prominent.

 

John led her by the hand on to a beach where the children were making sand sculptures, playing with a ball and splashing in the surf. Juleshka was on a sun lounger and the First Doctor was sketching in a large art book. It was obviously a family holiday.

 

Rose walked around and looked at the sketches the First Doctor had done. He had captured Juleshka’s beauty, with a serene smile on her face. The children were full of energy and motion, Rose fully expected them to run off the paper.

 

“John, these are wonderful,” she said in awe.

 

“Thanks, it’s a hobby of mine. I’d like to sketch you and EJ if you don’t mind.”

 

Rose smiled. “Of course, as long as you have it framed and hang it on the wall.”

 

The memories continued to move forward as they saw birthday celebrations, Otherstide (a sort of Gallifreyan Christmas) and various other happy occasions which brought them to the gardens of Lungbarrow House on a warm summer morning.

 

Rose recognised the formal clothing from the earlier memories and knew it was a wedding. Challese was in a simple, yet elegant white gown that fastened over one shoulder. The groom was in smart trousers and tunic and smiling fondly at his soon to be wife.

 

There was a young couple standing arm-in-arm next to the First Doctor that Rose hadn’t seen in previous memories.

 

“Who are those people John?” she asked.

 

John laughed. “That’s my Mum and Dad. They’ve regenerated since you last saw them.

 

Rose shook her head. “I don’t think I’ll ever get used to that,” she told him.

 

“Don’t worry, you don’t have to now. You’re stuck with me the way I am.”

 

Rose gently grabbed his face and gave him a snog. “Mmmm, thank God for that.”

 

They watched the ceremony, which followed the same format of the First Doctor’s. This time though it was the First Doctor and Juleshka saying ‘I consent and gladly give’. The breath caught in Rose’s throat as she looked at the old, grey haired woman hanging onto the First Doctor’s arm.

 

She walked over and looked closely at the woman’s face. She had the same steel blue eyes that looked at the First Doctor with love and devotion, and the same kind smile when she saw the love returned in the First Doctor’s eyes.

 

“John?” she asked hesitantly. “What’s goin’ on? Shouldn’t she have regenerated by now?”

 

John took a deep breath that shuddered in his chest as he prepared to explain.

 

“She couldn’t,” he said sadly. “When her parents disowned her, they took her Artron energy from her as a punishment.”

 

“I thought they looked nasty,” Rose said. “But that is downright evil. Who could do that to their own child?” Tears were stinging her eyes.

 

“They saw their children as currency in the upper echelons of Gallifreyan society, a way of furthering their influence. It was a punishment for Juleshka and a torture for me.”

 

Rose remembered what he had told her once, outside a coffee shop near Deffry Vale High School. ‘I don't age. I regenerate. But humans decay. You wither and you die. Imagine watching that happen to someone who you.... ‘.

 

“It was her, wasn’t it? The love you watched wither and die?” Tears were trickling down her cheeks now. She had been so selfish before, wanting him to love her. She had promised him that she would stay with him forever, without realising what that really meant.

 

And here it was presented before her in stark reality. The raw wound of anguish and loss, the unforgiving inevitability of the passage of time.

 

“Oh Doctor,” she sobbed. “I’m so sorry. I had no idea....” She stood up from the sofa and walked over to the fireplace, leaning on it for support as she cried her heart out.

 

Her body shook with sobs of grief for a woman who had been dead for centuries, and for the anguish of a man in another universe who lived with that memory.

 

John came to her and placed his right arm across her shoulders, EJ was still cradled in his left elbow. He pulled her into a gentle embrace, and together they wept.

 

When the wave of grief passed, Rose looked into John’s eyes. He was smiling at her and he nodded down at their son.

 

“That was then, this is now, and he is our forever,” he whispered, leaning forwards and gently kissing her lips. “I think that’s enough reminiscing for now. You’ve seen most of those memories anyway.”

 

“Oh no you don’t,” she told him, sniffing. “You said I need to know your past, how it shaped you into the person I came to love, and that memory has just proved it. I had no idea how just sayin’ ‘forever’ could hurt you so much. So come on, give it up, I’ve dried my eyes.”

 

John could hear Jackie in those words. He had realised a while ago where Rose’s strength of character came from. They sat back down on the sofa and resumed the telepathic link.

 

The elderly, frail, bed bound figure of Juleshka was cradling her first grand daughter, surrounded by her family. The First Doctor was sat on the bed next to his wife with his arm around her, gently leaning over and kissing her hair.

 

“She lived long enough to see her first grand daughter,” John said with a smile. “And that’s a happy memory.”

 

“Is that Susan, who first travelled with you?” Rose asked.

 

“Yeah, Susanatalisarachellenarisselungbarrowmas.”

 

The bedroom slowly faded into a grassy plateau on the slopes of Mount Lung, with a breathtaking view of the Cadonflood River meandering down the valley.

 

A funeral pyre stood in the middle of the plateau with a shroud wrapped body lying on top. Family and friends stood around the pyre, some in silent contemplation, others gently weeping.

 

Cheresse was cradling Susan while her husband had his arm around her shoulder, comforting her as tears rolled down her cheeks. Their other children and their partners were also there, along with Ulysses and Penelope.

 

The First Doctor walked towards the pyre with a lit torch and turned to face his family. He held the torch in the air.

 

“Knowing others gave her wisdom.

Knowing herself gave her enlightenment.

She knew that mastering others requires force.

Yet mastering herself required strength.

She knew that she had enough and was rich with that knowledge.

Her perseverance was a sign of her willpower.

And standing her ground, she endured.

She may have passed away, but she will not be forgotten,

And so, she will be eternally present.”

 

He turned back to the pyre and lit the tinder around the edge. Never taking his eyes off Juleshka’s shrouded body he walked backwards into the arms of his family.

 

Rose heard John echo the words of the First Doctor when he said ‘goodbye my love’.

 

The flames of the funeral pyre seemed to fade to black, as did the plateau and the Cadonflood valley.

 

“John?” Rose called out. No reply.

 

“John? Where are you? What’s happening?”

 


	20. Alternate lives

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapter borrows heavily from the novel Lungbarrow by Marc Platt. The Doctor revisits his second childhood and Rose finds more questions than answers.

  
** Chapter Twenty **

 

 

 

“John?” Rose called out. No reply.

 

“John? Where are you? What’s happenin’?”

 

They were sitting on the sofa in the living room of their luxury home in Notting Hill, in the city of London which is in the British Isles on the planet Earth, and no longer on the planet Gallifrey.

 

“That was weird,” Rose said. “It was like everythin’ ceased to exist.”

 

“Yeah,” John said running his hand through his hair. “That’s as far as those memories go. After that it all goes blank.”

 

“What do you think it was? Memory wipe? Alternate time line?” she asked him.

 

“I really have no idea. I’ve been thinking about it for years and still don’t know. I get the feeling though that I wasn’t supposed to be able to remember those events.”

 

“So what happens next then? How are things different?”

 

“Oh Rose,” he laughed. “You have no idea. Imagine The Addams Family meets the Borgias. Ready?”

 

Rose nodded her head and off they went, back to a very different Lungbarrow House.

 

The first thing Rose noticed was the ‘feel’ of the house, it was ‘off’. It was as though the house was sulking or brooding. John was right when he mentioned the Addams Family, she could almost hear the whistled tune and clicking fingers.

 

They were in a room full of pipes, tubes, cables and high tech equipment. Walls were covered with control panels and monitors that hummed and whirred, with the occasional hissing noise as a pressure release valve normalised pressure within the pipework.

 

In the centre of the room was an elongated ‘egg’, large enough to hold a person. A lot of the cables and pipework attached to this seemingly important piece of equipment.

 

“Okay, where are we?” Rose asked him in that ‘here we go again’ tone of voice.

 

“This is the Lungbarrow loom room.” He stopped and thought about it and then grinned. “Loom room, I like that, a room with a loom.”

 

“John!?” He stopped and looked at her.

 

“Oh, right. Explanations. This is now after the fall of Pythia and all Gallifreyans are sterile. Wellll, when I say sterile, women still ovulated and men still.... well you get the idea. But no eggs would fertilise, and no one knew why.”

 

“Pythia’s curse,” Rose said.

 

“Yeah, that’s what it was called. The loom was invented by Rassilon’s scientists, it takes the genetic material from the eggs and sperms and combines it ‘in vitro’. It then grows a person who is a fully grown adult with an infant’s brain.”

 

“It all feels wrong John. It’s like Frankenstein’s castle, there’s an atmosphere of forebodin’ hanging over the place.”

 

“You can feel it can you? For me it was home, but having the other memories means I can feel the difference. The weird thing is though, I can remember being in there,” He pointed at the ‘egg’ in the middle of the room.

 

“I can remember waiting to be born... It was like being all strung out. All unravelled inside the Loom. I was spread really thin… I couldn’t think. Not put thoughts together.… But I knew where I was and what was happening. I couldn't wait to get out. And then I was born. My lungs nearly burst. The first rush of air was so cold.... No one I told believed me, because it wasn’t possible.”

 

“Another mystery,” Rose said slowly, deep in thought. “It’s as though you time travelled from that funeral to this loom. How could you do that?”

 

“No idea, it couldn’t be a TARDIS, people would see and hear it.”

 

“What about a vortex manipulator that.... Jack Harkness used? You don’t think? No.... It couldn’t be.... Could it?” Rose looked at John wide eyed and mouth open.

 

“No, definitely not!” He stopped and thought about it. “No, not Jack. No. There was this one mystery character called The Other, y’know, the one celebrated on Otherstide, he was from the time of Pythia.”

 

“Could he have used a vortex manipulator? Or could he have been Jack?”

 

“No, I don’t think he was Jack. I saw the shadowy figure once in a vision when I was in my seventh regeneration. Susan recognised him and thought it was the first me,” he told her. “He had this device called ‘The Hand of Omega’, it could have been that I suppose. I’ll explain about that later”

 

While they were thinking about this, they heard footsteps approaching and then the door burst open. 42 people filed into the room and made way for two elderly individuals who radiated authority.

 

“Ah here come the Borgias,” John said with a smile. “Rose, these are my loom cousins. The elderly man there is Quinces, the 422nd Kithriarch of the House of Lungbarrow, the father of the house if you like. The rather stern looking old hag with the staff is Satthralope, she’s the mother of the house and never really liked me.”

 

Quinces moved over to a control console near the ‘egg’ and studied the display. “He is ready,” he announced and pressed a sequence of buttons. There was a whirring and hissing as refrigeration gases vented from the loom and chilled the air.

 

The front of the loom moved forwards and upwards on jointed arms revealing a green glow behind the fog of gas. As the fog cleared, Rose could see the naked body of the First Doctor. He appeared to be the same age as the one at Juleshka’s funeral.

 

The Housekeeper stepped forward and slapped her hand across the First Doctor’s upper thigh. He gave a gasp, drew in a lung full of refrigerated air and let out a yell.

 

“Bitch,” John muttered under his breath.

 

Various cousins started sniggering and pointing at the naked figure in the loom. Rose thought they were pointing and laughing at his manhood and felt they were being very unkind, as she had no complaints in that department. In fact.... She started blushing at her next thought.

 

“Why are they laughin’ at you?” she asked him, all confused.

 

“It’s not that!” he said, waggling his eyebrows. That got her blushing even more. “I have a navel.”

 

“What? And they don’t?”

 

“No they don’t. If you’re grown in a loom, you don’t need one. It’s just another mystery about me.”

 

“This is like that story about the prince who swaps places with a street urchin,” Rose said. “You’ve been taken from a lovin’ family and dumped.... here.”

 

“‘The Prince And The Pauper’, Mark Twain. Samuel Langhorne Clemens was his real name; he was a real joker he was. He got the idea for ‘A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court’ from me,” John rambled on.

 

“John. Can’t you feel it? There’s no love here like there was back there.... wherever ‘there’ was.”

 

John’s face was impassive as he looked at his wife. “And now you know why I stole a TARDIS and ran away.”

 

Quinces wrapped a gown around the new arrival and helped him out of the room.

 

“Aaagh! What the hell is that?” Rose screamed in surprise. A large, polished wooden man stood outside the door and picked up the First Doctor.

 

John laughed. “That’d be Lurch,” he joked. “It’s called a Drudge, a kind of mechanised servant.”

 

They walked behind the Drudge as it carried its precious cargo through the house towards his room. The house looked pretty much the same as Rose had seen it in John’s previous memories, but it felt completely different.

 

“The more I experience this John, the more it feels like the alternate reality that Donna created with that time beetle on her back.”

 

“Really? That’s very interesting. I wonder if The Other or The Hand of Omega had the power to create a different reality just for me, without changing other peoples perception of reality?”

 

“So you think it was one of them then?” Rose asked.

 

“I still don’t know, but they’re the prime suspects.”

 

Rose looked back at the cousins who were now drifting off in various directions.

 

“So what are they like then these cousins of yours?”

 

“Quinces was kind and nurturing, I think I was his favourite because I was such a genius. He wanted me to become Lord Cardinal, but I just wanted to get out and explore,” he started to explain.

 

“Growing up, I was closest to Innocet.” He pointed to a young woman with red braided hair, walking away from them. They walked into another memory as sunlight dazzled on the leaves and on the river.

 

They heard the clacking antlers of jousting neversuch beetles. The First Doctor poked one beetle, almost a hand long, with a cut reed. It droned its flightless wings and snapped at the reed with its mandibles. He poked it again and watched it scuttle for cover.

 

There was a cry of despair behind them. They turned and saw a young woman struggling down the sandy bank to the shore. It was Innocet, looking about twenty years old. Her robe, absurdly heavy for such an expedition, had caught on a thorny root. It was riding up, showing off her underskirts.

 

She scolded the First Doctor as he laughed. She tried to pull herself free, but the basket she carried tipped up and tipped berries all down the bank.

 

Her footing slipped and she slithered down after them, landing with a squelchy thump.

 

“We'll be late for supper,” she said, as she tried to flatten down her wayward skirts, she was laughing as well.

 

They continued following the Drudge. “She looked out for me and stood up to Satthralope when I got into trouble. Glospin over there.” He pointed to a black haired individual with a cane who looked like the achetypal villain.

 

“He was the old hag’s favourite, he was a scheming bully and actually murdered Quinces in an attempt to become the next  Kithriarch. He tried to frame me for his murder and threatened to expose me as an interloper into the Lungbarrow loom.”

 

“What, you mean he knew you’d been inserted into the loom somehow?”

 

“No, I don’t think so, but he was a geneticist and he found that my DNA didn’t quite match the other cousins. It’s like I’m some sort of cuckoo.”

 

“Isn’t that more evidence for you being time travelled into the loom or somethin’?”

 

“Yeah, I suppose it is, but we still don’t know by whom or for what reason.”

 

“The rest of them were fairly okay I suppose, just like any other family I suppose.”

 

“And what was your childhood like this time?”

 

“It was okay actually, I didn’t remember my past life at this point, so I had nothing to compare with it. Oh, and I underwent my brainbuffing.”

 

Rose giggled. “You mean they take your brain out and give it a polish?”

 

John laughed. “No, all loomlings have eight years of brainbuffing, it fills your head with stuff you need to know to be an adult.”

 

They were now in a classroom with the First Doctor, and a large, furry, curly horned badger, who appeared to be teaching him the history of Gallifrey.

 

“Ahhh, there’s Badger look, he was my tutor. He was an avatroid that Quinces programmed and gave to me, we became really good friends.”

 

“Your tutor was a robot badger?” Rose asked suspiciously. Was he making these memories up?

 

“Yeah, it was great. Because I was such a genius, I saw it as part of my education to work around his logic circuits, baffle him and then skip class to go and play with my cousins.”

 

The scene changed again. They were now in the Citadel, but it was different to how Rose remembered it from his previous memories. It was still beautiful, in that alien sort of way, but the architecture was different.

 

John saw the look on her face and explained.

 

“They rebuilt the city after the fall of Pythia and the student rebellion. I came to live here while I studied at the academy, and then got a job in the Chapterhouse's Bureau of Possibility when I finally graduated.”

 

Rose bumped his shoulder and grinned. “Who’d have thought it, you havin’ a job an’ livin’ in a city.”

 

“Yeah. And I hated it. I wanted to be out there.” He looked up at the apricot sky. “It may have been some previous memories bleeding through. But I felt I was just biding my time until I could escape.”

 

He ran his hand through his hair in that unconscious gesture of his.

 

“Anyway I quit that job after a few decades, my bosses disagreed with my  overzealous political involvements. After that I became a Scrutationary Archivist at the Bureau of Continual Observation until my past caught up with me and I managed to leave.”

 


	21. New Beginnings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> OK, so this is the final chapter. Trying to tie all the loose ends together makes your brain hurt. Rose finally sees the Doctor’s life come full circle and has as many questions as she does answers. I hope this works. Thanks to Tardis Data Core and Marc Platt.

 

** Chapter Twenty One **

 

 

 

John was explaining to Rose how events precipitated his departure from Gallifrey.

 

“What do you mean, ‘your past caught up with you’?” Rose asked.

 

They left the colonnades known as Gesyevva's Fingers and faded into an untidy study, full of old-fashioned books and papers. At a desk sat the First Doctor. His white hair was swept back over his head. He wore a dark-green tunic. Perched on his nose was a pair of multifocal spectacles.

 

“This is the time when I received a summons from Quences to return to Lungbarrow for the reading of his will. I think he wanted me to become the 423rd Kithriarch, which would have meant me being tied to the house for the rest of my life. At the same time, I had a refusal for promotion from the Registrar of Continual Observation, and I’m sure Quences had a hand in that.”

 

As they watched the scene, there was a bump outside the door. There was a second bump and something as big as a coffin slid through the surface of the closed door. It was a battered, black casket floating about waist-high above the carpet.

 

The First Doctor grasped his cane and approached the object. It whirred and clicked at him. Little pulses of UV shifted on its surface. He tapped it gingerly with his cane. It whined plaintively like a lost animal.

 

“Shoo,” he said, “whatever you are. Go on, you unpleasant object. Go away.”

 

“What the hell is that?” Rose asked, moving forward and scrutinising the object.

 

“That my love is the ‘Hand of Omega’, a stellar manipulator that allowed the Time Lords to harness the power of a star.”

 

“What? You mean it’s like the heart of the TARDIS?”

 

“Yep, except this one’s in a box. It was created by a great galactic engineer called Peylix, later known as Omega, and for some reason it attached itself to me. I didn’t know what it was at first, and it defied all attempts to identify it, but it protected me and kept me safe.”

 

The room around them became a scene of chaos with torn papers and books scattered all over the place. The First Doctor was trying to gather up the mess and sort the papers. A tall dark man stood in the door way, leaning on a cane.

 

“I recognise him,” Rose said. “Isn’t he the one you said murdered Quences and tried to frame you?”

 

“Yeah, that’s him, cousin Glospin. He’s come to tell me I’m a loom cuckoo.”

 

“Otherstide felicitations,” Glospin said with an evil grin.

 

“What's this, Cousin? A name-day treat? Hmm?” He raised his chin in a way that Rose had seen her husband do countless times when facing adversity.

 

“I'm no Cousin of yours, remember?” Glospin replied.

 

“How could I forget?”

 

“So I hope you weren't considering a visit to your former home.”

 

“Charmed, I'm sure.” The First Doctor gathered up a fistful of papers. “You come all this way, after all this time, when you must be due at the House yourself. What's the matter? Afraid of losing your inheritance!”

 

“My assumption as new Kithriarch has never been more assured,” said Glospin. “Quences is senile. But don't entertain the delusion that anyone else wants you back. You have already been replaced.”

 

The First Doctor gave an involuntary gasp of shock. “Impossible...” He reached to his desk for support. “And illegal too.”

 

“A little premature, I felt. But with a few chosen words in suitable places...” He smiled. “And so I deemed it a courtesy to clarify a few outstanding matters first.” He reached inside his robe. Rose gripped John’s arm as she expected a weapon to be drawn.

 

They watched him take a document from his robe. “Your Loom Certification.”

 

“What now?” the First Doctor asked in a bored voice.

 

“I was studying the document recently when I discovered some anomalies in your genetic codings.”

 

The First Doctor snatched away the document.

 

“That's all right, Wormhole,” said Glospin smoothly. “It's just a copy. But if you look, you will see that your codes are entirely out of sympathy with the Lungbarrow Loom's genetic template.”

 

“Wormhole?” Rose asked. John poked his finger in his navel and wiggled it. “Oh,” Rose nodded.

 

“Nonsense.” The First Doctor's face sharpened with irritation as he studied the document. “This is some childish attempt to complete my severance from the Family.”

 

“I undertook this purely out of my interests as a geneticist. But of course, due to the Family circumstances...”

 

“Insulting.”

 

“It's not entirely unheard of. People renew their regenerative cycles by jumping Looms, thus being reborn into new Families. Was that your plan, Wormhole? You certainly never belonged to Lungbarrow's Loom. Or do you come from further a field?”

 

He was drawing closer, scrutinising the First Doctor like some laboratory specimen. “In short, exactly who or what are you?”

 

“Who?” the First Doctor exploded. “I don't know what petty loophole you've dug up, Glospin. But I am your Cousin. And don't think I'm not aware of your nasty Gallifreyan Allegiance proclivities. Or your involvement with the Intervention Agency.”

 

“Not exactly true,” said the persecutor, smiling. “But I am ready to fascinate them with my discovery. . . for the correct remuneration.”

 

“Insanity!” The First Doctor shook his head. “Haven't you had enough from me already?”

 

“No,” said Glospin. “I want everything.”

 

“Out! Get out!” shouted the First Doctor. He raised his stick and brought it down on Glospin. But his opponent was ready to give as he good as he got. They watched as the two men started grappling each other.

 

The box came through the wall with a crash. Glospin screamed as a flare of light scorched his right arm. He stared at the box, choking with pain. “I'll see you ruined! Lungbarrow will never take you back again!” The box slid towards him, but he fell at the door and stumbled out into the Citadel.

 

“Lies.” The First Doctor was shaking. His cheek was bleeding where Glospin had clawed him. He swept his cane across the litter of damaged books. The strewn wreckage of a life's work. “Lies.”

 

From the city outside came a new jangle of alarms. The Hand of Omega always set off the alarms. The box hovered by the open door, clicking excitedly.

 

“What are you?” demanded the First Doctor. In answer, the thing opened its lid. Inside sat a fierce, icy-white furnace. As the First Doctor stared into it, his frightened expression turned to astonishment and wonder.

 

His voice trembled. “Of course, of course. Extraordinary. I understand. But why choose me?”

 

“That light!” Rose exclaimed. “I’ve seen it before, when Margaret the Slitheen looked into the heart of the TARDIS.”

 

“Yes, and once more after that,” John said, remembering when she had returned to Satellite Five to save him from the Daleks.

 

“So, this was the impetus I needed to finally make a break for it. I threw a few personal belongings and keepsakes in a bag, and headed for the TT embarkation port on Under-level 15 of the Citadel.”

 

The scene changed again and they were in the dry dimension dockyard on the next level up from the TT embarkation port, as it had been heavily guarded. On a neural construction palette stood a gleaming new TARDIS ready for service installation.

 

A brochure listed its immaculate specifications and latest safety features - a remote recall override system. “A type fifty-three?”' complained the First Doctor. “You're not getting me out in one of those new-fangled soulless slip-abouts.”

 

In a far corner, surrounded by junk, was a dull grey, battered old TT booth with an obsolete Type 40 marker on the door. The key was in the lock. As the First Doctor stepped inside the doomed TARDIS, they heard a fresh clamour of alarms from close by.

 

“Is that what the TARDIS looks like without its chameleon circuit?” Rose asked.

 

“Yeah. It’s been left to ‘die’ so that they can recycle all the components once the heart is cold.”

 

“Oh that’s so sad,” Rose said. She remembered the warmth and the gentle soul of the TARDIS that had welcomed her on board all those years ago.

 

Beyond its tight dimensional gate, the ship's interior opened out impossibly. Its spacious console room was gloomy and neglected. A cobweb lifted and rippled on the central console. Several panels had been lifted off to expose the complex inner circuitry.

 

“This is very ‘retro’,” Rose commented.

 

They watched the First Doctor tear away the cobwebs and blow off the dust. Instantly, the sluggish hum of power edged up a tone. A gold light began to glimmer weakly behind the honeycomb of roundels that covered the walls. The place felt welcoming. The First Doctor put down his bag.

 

“Oooh John, I can feel her, it’s your old TARDIS!”

 

“Yep, that’s my old girl before she redecorated.”

There were banks of instruments around the room and a couple of overturned chairs. Beyond a door, there was the glimpse of a shadowy passage leading deeper into the infinite depths beyond.

 

He examined the control panel and selected the brass button marked DOOR. There was no response. The power was all but drained. The light guttered and the ship's hum died.

 

“At this point, I think I should explain that I had no idea how to fly a TT capsule,” John said.

 

“Hey, don’t forget, I’ve travelled with you. D’ya think you ‘ever’ had an idea how to fly one?” She had her tongue between her teeth as she flashed him her mischievous smile.

 

“Oi,” he said with a playful smile. He was about to resume the memory show, when his phone started playing the Darth Vader theme from Star Wars.

 

“Jackie! What can I do for you?” John asked in a cheerful voice, grinning at Rose on the sofa next to him.

 

Rose watched him listening to her mother and then he put the phone against his chest.

 

“She wants to know if they can come over and do we want them to bring pizza?”

 

Rose nodded enthusiastically. “Yeah of course they can come over, and pizza would be great. It means we don’t have to cook.”

 

He put the phone back to his ear. “That’ll be great Jackie, we’ll have a Dalai Lama,” he said with a twinkle in his eye. Rose knew what was coming next, it was his favourite food joke.

 

Jackie must have asked what a Dalai Lama pizza was because John laughed. “One with everything…. Hee hee. See you all later, bye.”

 

He put his phone down, kissed his son’s head and continued the memory.

 

They watched the First Doctor drum his fingers in frustration, when something whooshed in through the door. The black box was suddenly hovering beside him.

 

“Yes, I wondered when you'd catch up with me,” he said. “So you think you can come along too, do you? Well, that's all very well, my friend. But since we have neither the luxury of a pilot nor of any power, perhaps you can suggest a way to fly this thing.”

 

The box whirred. Its lid opened a crack. The white furnace inside winked at him. They could feel its energy softly saturating the air. The ship gradually began to hum again. A more confident, assertive hum.

 

The light in the room began to rise. A screen attached to the ceiling flickered into life, showing a group of Agency guards moving methodically across the dock area outside. One of them carried a gun.

 

The First Doctor pressed the DOOR button again. This time, the heavy double doors buzzed and swung shut. The central glass column of the console juddered.

 

The complex instruments inside turned back and forth. Lights twinkled among the circuits. By now, the ship was throbbing with energy. “Remarkable, remarkable!” enthused the First Doctor. “All this power, from an ancient antiquity!”

 

There was a loud clang. On the screen, they could see the guards gathering around the ship.

 

“Well, it appears that my future is in your hands ... or should I say Hand, eh? Hmm?” His shoulders heaved with little gusts of mirth.

 

A light showed beside an unmarked dial. The Doctor glanced at the box. It gleeped at him. He reached out and gave the dial a twist.

 

John and Rose grinned at each other. “Here we go again,” he said as he held her hand.

 

The air grated with the roar of engines. An undulating grinding like something tearing open the fabric of reality. The glass column rose and fell, its inner carousel of instruments turning. Switches and levers adjusted by themselves. The ship jolted and the screen picture vanished.

 

The First Doctor turned pale and fell against one of the chairs. Then the commotion stopped. The column sank and fell silent. The light dimmed and a voice spoke out of the air.

 

'This ship is on an unauthorized vector. Transportation into the Backtime of the Gallifreyan continuum is forbidden. You are being tractored back to Time Traffic Control for further questioning.'

 

The First Doctor, already on hands and knees, turned to the box. “Where were you taking me? Hmm?”

 

The ship shook and the light turned red.

 

“Well? This is a fine pickle,” he complained. “So what do you intend to do about it?”

 

The box rose steadily in the air. It whirred across the console room and hovered its bulk above the glass column. The air started to thrum. The First Doctor covered his ears as red light flickered around him.

 

'Warning!' They could still hear the voice. 'The resistance of a recall summons is an offence. You cannot breach the Backtime Field Buffers. Abandon this vector immediately!'

 

A trembling seized the ship. Forces wrenched at its structure. The box opened its lid wide.

 

'Warning! Contact with the Backtime Field Buffers will disengage the dimensions of this ship. Retur-' The cloister bell began to ring through the bowels of the ship.

 

The box gave a shriek. The First Doctor hit the floor as an icy sunburst engulfed the room. John and Rose covered their eyes from the glare, the flower of white flame hung for a moment. Then space and other dimensions outside time folded around it and tucked it neatly out of harm's way.

 

When the glare subsided, they could see the First Doctor lying on his back staring at the ceiling. The steady hum of the TARDIS was gently soothing. He sat up. The glass column rose and fell with the pulse of flight. Lozenges of vortical light streaked across the scanner.

 

“Well,” he said, feeling for broken bones, “and where exactly are you taking me?”

 

The box edged in beside him. It clucked and chirruped with something resembling a contented familiarity.

 

He looked startled. “Home? What do you mean ‘home’? I don't want to go home. I can never go home again.”

 

Rose looked at John, puzzled and confused. “You’re going back to Lungbarrow? But I thought Glospin had framed you for murder.”

 

“No Rose, you misunderstand, the Hand of Omega took me ‘home’.”

 

They followed the First Doctor out of the doors and found they were in exactly the same place. Rose looked around, completely baffled.

 

“It’s when we are, not where,” John told her as they followed the First Doctor out of the embarkation port and into the Citadel.

 

Rose looked up and could see the upper city spanning the lower on vast arches. These were crowned by further arches and bridges, all of them carrying buildings and gardens, domes and belfries. They had come full circle, they were back in the old city before the fall of Pythia.

 

“I have no idea how the Hand of Omega did it, or what happened after Juleshka’s funeral, or even why it did it,” he sighed.

 

“Rose, your family have arrived,” Donna-the-house announced.

 

“Thanks Donna, can you let them in please?” Rose replied.

 

“No problem.”

 

John gently stood up and lowered EJ into his carrycot and opened the living room door. Tony was the first one through and John scooped him up into a spinning hug.

 

While he was held high, Tony looked up to the ceiling.

 

“Hello Donna,” he said happily.

 

“Hello you little monkey,” Donna-the-house said back. Tony chuckled at being called a monkey.

 

John leaned over and kissed Jackie on the cheek as she came through the door to greet her daughter and he lowered Tony to the floor.

 

“Hi Pete,” John said slapping him on the back and directing him to the dining room with the boxes of pizza’s. “I’ll just get some plates.”

 

They sat in the dining room eating slices of ‘Dalai Lama’ pizza, chatting, laughing and joking. EJ snoozed in his carrycot by Rose. John had a warm feeling inside, never believing that he would ever do domestic again.

 

That was until he had met Rose. Her love, understanding and compassion had taught him that he could enjoy a family life again without sadness, guilt or pain.

 

“John’s been telling me about his early life on Gallifrey,” Rose told them as they were on the last few slices of pizza.

 

“I bet that’s an eye opener,” Jackie said raising an eyebrow and hoping for some alien gossip.

 

“And before you ask Mum, it’s personal and John is a private person,” Rose said, intercepting her mother’s next words.

 

John smiled at Rose as he reached over to squeeze her hand. “It’s okay love, they’re family now, and to be honest, I feel a weight has been lifted off my shoulders by telling you.”

 

They finished their meal and went back to the living room, while John went to fetch something from his study. When he returned he had an A3 sketch pad and a bunch of pencils.

 

Donna-the-house had put ‘Toby the Tank Engine’ on the TV for Tony and John got them all to sit on the sofa while he sat in one of the comfy chairs by the fire and started to draw.

 

Rose started filling them in on what she had just learned about her husband’s past as EJ was cuddled and passed around.

 

“You might need to take notes,” John said with a laugh. “It gets a bit complicated.”

 

As Rose was telling them his story, occasionally Jackie would look over at John with looks of concern, admiration and even.... love. She suspected he had been a rebel and a ‘wild child’, but had no idea about the troubles in his early life, all two of them.

 

EJ woke up in Pete’s arms and started to niggle.

 

“I think someone’s ready for some food,” Rose said, taking the offered individual from her father.

 

“Doesn’t he like pizza?” Tony asked them, and couldn’t understand why they were laughing. He looked to John for an explanation.

 

John tapped his teeth with his pencil. “No teeth,” he said with a knowing nod. Tony nodded his head in a grown up, understanding way.

 

Rose turned away, unbuttoned her blouse and attached EJ to her breast. A sudden thought entered her head and she looked over her shoulder at John.

 

“Don’t even think about it,” she said with a smile. John just gave her a mischievous grin.

 

“I won’t,” he reassured her. “Not until you’ve got your figure back, anyway.”

 

“What’s he eating then?” Tony asked. Pete and John stifled a laugh as Jackie rolled her eyes to the heavens. ‘Do little boys ever grow up’ she tutted to herself.

 

“His mummy has got some food for him in her blouse,” she explained.

 

“So John, we’ve come full circle and you’re back in your original time in Gallifrey. Is there any more to the story?” Rose asked over her shoulder. EJ was guzzling away happily in her arms.

 

“Time had passed in this reality so that I was the age I was supposed to be. I was still a Scrutationary Archivist at the Bureau of Continual Observation, and still wanted to follow my brother out into the big wide universe.”

 

“Talking of your brother, what happened to your family?” Pete asked him.

 

“Well, that’s another weird thing. I didn’t know I had a brother at the time, but I remember the feelings of wanting to go with him on his travels. My memories started to filter back over time. My parents had left Gallifrey and moved to Earth where they happily lived out the rest of their lives.”

 

EJ finished his feed and Rose started patting his back. John carefully tore off the sheet of paper and continued to sketch on a clean sheet as he told the rest of his story.

 

“I found my granddaughter Susan, or Arkytior as she was then. Well, to be honest, she found me during the civil unrest that led to the overthrow of Pythia. I didn’t remember her at the time but she convinced me that I was her grandfather.”

 

John’s voice took on a sad tone. “Susan told me that her mother Challese had died soon after Juleska’s funeral and her father died in a bow-ship, fighting the Great Vampires. Susan was looked after by her nanny, Mamlaurea and my ‘other’ self.”

 

Rose looked concerned but John gave her a reassuring smile He was okay now, he was going to finish this.

 

“Apparently I had sent Susan off-world to stay with Mamlaurea’s family, but the spaceport was disabled by the rebels. She ended up living on the streets of the undercity while I was living at the Bureau, completely unaware of her existence. I still feel guilty about that, even though I couldn’t do anything about it.”

 

He took a cleansing breath and smiled. “It all worked out in the end though. We got back to the embarkation port, and there had been more obsolete TT capsules added. I nearly chose the wrong one, but a mysterious young woman pointed me to ‘my old girl’ and we escaped the fall of Pythia.”

 

John put his pencil down and then started to show his sketches. The first was of proud grandmother Jackie looking lovingly at her grandson.

 

“I always think a photograph gives you the recipe for the moment, but a sketch? That can give you the flavour,” John said as he handed the sketch to Jackie.

 

“Oh John, this is wonderful. You’ve caught the emotions on the paper.” Jackie could feel tears in her eyes.

 

The next sketch he handed to Pete and everyone craned their necks to look at it. If you turned the lights off in the room, you would still have been able to see Pete’s smile on the paper.

 

“Thanks John, no really, thank you. I shall treasure this.” He looked at Jackie. “We’ll get these framed and put up on the wall at home.”

 

His next sketch showed Tony and EJ with cheeky grins on their faces. This showed their future potential for mischief together.

 

The final sketch showed all the Tylers together on the sofa with EJ being held by his mother in the middle. That was going above the fireplace John decided.

 

Pete had been ruminating on the story he had heard and was trying to organise his thoughts.

 

“So you were born on Gallifrey to Ulysses and Penelope?” he asked, holding up his thumb.

 

“Yep,” John replied.

 

“And you got married, had children and grandchildren and forgot about it?” Pete extended his index finger.

 

“Yep.”

 

“You wake up naked in a refrigerator as a member of the Addams Family?” He holds out his middle finger.

 

“That sounds like the morning after a stag do if you ask me,” Jackie said with a smirk.

 

John laughed. “Yep.”

 

“And a black coffin flew you in a time machine back to your past and replaced you with you?” Ring finger extended.

 

“Er, yeah.”

 

“And you have no idea who, how or why?”

 

“Yep, I mean nope,” John corrected himself.

 

“Well that explains a lot,” Pete said sarcastically, giving John a big grin.

 

Rose suddenly spotted a gap in the memories from Pete’s summary.

 

“John, what if, from the time of Juleshka’s funeral to the time you wake up in the loom, you were this ‘Other’ person, on some preordained mission.”

 

“Hey, y’know you might be onto something there love. It would explain a lot of the missing bits of the story,” John said, smiling at his brilliant Rose. When the chips were down, she always seemed to be able to see what he couldn’t.

 

“It’s a mystery,” Rose said. “But that's good. John said himself ‘day I know everything? Might as well stop’. I mean, look at Jack the Ripper, no one will never know who he was.”

 

“What? you mean you don’t.... know?” John looked at the astonished faces looking at him.

 

“You mean you know who it was?” Rose asked him in surprise.

 

“Hello? Spaceman with a time machine,” Donna-the-house said in a ‘are you all thick or what’ tone of voice.

 

“Er, it was my seventh regeneration, and I think I’ve already said too much.”

 

“So who was it?” Jackie asked him.

 

John smiled and shook his head. “Some mysteries are best left alone so that they can become legends.”

 

He drew an imaginary zip across his lips.

  
  
** The End **

 


End file.
